After the controversial cancellation of a massive R830 million smart meter contract by the City of Tshwane, the metro’s executive mayor says that a new provider will be appointed within the next six months.

Mayor Kgosientso Ramokgopa announced that the smart meter project was effectively back up and running at a media briefing in Pretoria, where he addressed the progress made so far since the contract termination with PEU Capital, the original provider.

According to Ramokgopa, the contract with PEU will officially be terminated on June 30th. The mayor also said city did not incur any penalties and it can prove that it did not lose the R800 million as “every cent can be accounted for”.

Due to an agreement with PEU, the city “will not be paying any exit fees,” the mayor said. “The R800 million that has been spent to date was for initial capitalisation, system development, launch and operation of the project. We remain of principled view that we need to collect value for every rand worth of ratepayers’ money we spend on any project.”

“PEU has given Tshwane their IP. We will be going out on tender soon,” he added. “The new partners are expected to take over from PEU on January 1st 2016.”

Ramokgopa also mentioned that although the city has officially parted ways with PEU, the company will assist the city over the next few months as it transitions to a new provider, during which it aims to collect in excess of R1.8 billion in direct electricity user charges.

[Source – Twitter, image – City of Tshwane]