Chronicle Editor
Vusumuzi Dube, Municipal Reporter
THE Bulawayo City Council has said it is ready to run the Bulawayo Power Station and see to it that the electricity generated benefits the Bulawayo community.
The sentiments by the local authority come at a time when the Zimbabwe Energy Regulatory Authority (Zera) halted moves to renew an electricity generation licence for the Zimbabwe Power Company by 20 years from 2024 after objections from BCC and residents.
BCC wrote to Zera objecting to the licence renewal bid arguing among other issues that they were the owners of the power station and ZPC were just mere occupants who were neglecting their obligation of paying royalties for the use of the station.
Speaking on the sidelines of an emergency financial performance review meeting held at the Large City Hall last Wednesday, the city’s Town Clerk, Mr Christopher Dube said they were ready to take over and operate the power station. He said they were the title deeds holders of the power station, with ZPC being mere tenants who could be evicted at any given time.
“It’s a clear cut matter, we are the owners of the station, that is not debatable because we have the title deeds, further we all know that electricity generated was de-regularised by the Government therefore we can as well venture into power generation for our residents, actually we are ready to do just that.
“Remember when Zera made the public notice for the licence renewal we objected as well as residents through the Bulawayo Progressive Residents Association.
“Once the whole issues of arbitration are concluded we will take it up from there but we are always ready,” said Mr Dube.
During the review meeting, the local authority’s Finance Director, Mr Kimpton Ndimande had confirmed to residents that the city has the title deeds to the power station, when the matter was queried by residents.
“Yes, we have the title deeds to the power station, we have always had those deeds and even the power utility is aware of that. That building is ours,” said Mr Ndimande.
The power station has been subject to debate over the past decade with the local authority and power utility playing a cat and mouse game regarding the payment of royalties by Zesa. BCC has dragged Zesa to court in a bid to rectify the matter.
Recently, ZPC announced that it was reviewing a draft contract received from India Export and Import Bank for the $87 million Bulawayo Thermal Power Station repowering project. The ZPC/ India-Exim Bank deal was clinched in 2015 and the financial institution last month announced having extended an additional $23 million line of credit for rehabilitation of Bulawayo Thermal Power Station.
The thermal plant’s refurbishment process includes, among other activities, replacing old boilers with state-of-the-art boilers. The power plant, which was built 60 years ago, has been failing to meet its installed generation capacity of 120MW due to ageing equipment.
derick.khumalo