municipality refuses with card electricity option

Our electricity is supp**** by the msunduzi municipality. All electricity supply is paid for by us to the municipality. I requested that I have a cardial option for my electricity supply as I couldnt afford to pay my electricity bill every month because if you miss ONE payment, your supply is cut off. I saw this as a problem because my children are currently in school and they need to study till late. I therefore requested this option so that I dont have to go pay at the municipality, I can always jus use my card, put in a certain amount of money in which can be less than even R50 to be minimal (as it is mostly all I can afford and my electricity bill is not R50)... The municipality attended to my request for a while and told me that I needed to pay a huge sum of money for my cardial option to be installed. I did not understand this as from my knowledge, this is supposed to be free. Please help as right now my supply has been cut off because I owe about R8820 that I am not able to afford or pay...I am very concerned about this matter.