Leo Mews flats benefit from public housing maintenance work

04 October 2024

The City’s Human Settlements teams continue their work to invest in public housing maintenance across units in the metro. Maintenance work has been done at the City’s affordable rental units in Leo Mews, Elsies River, including the installation of new technology prepaid electricity meters. 

'When the affordable rental units were built for opportunities for residents many years ago, they were installed with private electricity prepaid and credit meters by a contractor. This meant that the contractor was responsible for their infrastructure as well as for maintaining the infrastructure. Many of the older meters were reaching the end of its cycle and needed to be replaced.

'We are pleased to announce that the City installed 125 new prepaid meters over a number of weeks, which will be greatly benefit our tenants.  

'The units were fitted with new prepaid electricity meters and many tenants could qualify for our affordable Lifeline Tariff, which includes Free Basic Electricity. Residents are encouraged to reach out to us to find out more and to see if they qualify for the support.

'The City's Human Settlements Directorate continues to do its best to assist the most vulnerable residents in our city, not only with our title deeds, maintenance and upgrades and other initiatives, but also with collaborative projects such as this Energy one. The City thanks all partners, stakeholders and tenants for their support while the teams installed the new prepaid meters in the Leo Mews units,' said the Mayoral Committee Member for Human Settlements, Councillor Carl Pophaim. 

Cost of electricity

The cost of electricity is the same for old credit meters, older prepaid meters, and the new prepaid meters.

These new prepaid meters merely measure electricity usage and do not consume any of the customer's electricity. The newer meters help with cost management, accuracy of readings, usage control and monitoring. It also enables qualifying beneficiaries to move to the highly subsidised, affordable Lifeline Tariff, which includes Free Basic Electricity (FBE). 

Published by:
City of Cape Town, Media Office