Chronicle Editor
Senior Business Reporter
BULAWAYO Power Station ownership comes under the spotlight tomorrow (Friday) as the local authority convenes a public consultative stakeholders meeting over the matter.
The meeting is set for Small City Hall.
“The City of Bulawayo will be conducting a public consultation meeting on the Bulawayo Power Station on Friday, 10 March 2023 at 11:00 hours at the Small City Hall,” reads a brief notice from council.
Last weekend, councilors in all the city’s wards led consultative meetings with residents on the power station ownership wrangles. The city council and Zimbabwe Power Company (ZPC) have been engaged in legal battles over the ownership of the power station with the local authority claiming that the power utility was legally its tenant.
Several years ago ZPC emerged with its set of title deeds, which saw them even making moves to demolish two of the cooling towers at the power station. The power utility said the iconic cooling towers had outlived their lifespan. It was not clear how the ZPC got to have the title deeds as the power station was constructed and fell under the jurisdiction of the local authority until 1987 when Zesa was given the sole mandate of power generation in the country, taking over from local authorities.
BCC has vowed that it will only be able to give ZPC the title deeds after the power utility pays them royalties of US$60 million.
Blessing Chizhande
Bongani Ndlovu