Consumers owe Zesa $200m

Auxilia Katongomara Chronicle Reporter
ELECTRICITY consumers in the western region owe Zesa about $200 million amid revelations that the region has been hit by rampant vandalism that has seen Zesa losing about 827km of cable valued at about $7 million to copper thieves in the last six years.

The Western Region is made up of three provinces, Bulawayo, Matabeleland South and Matabeleland North with a customer base of about 158,000.

Speaking at the launch and switch-on ceremony of Emganwini-Mbundane Bulawayo West Electrification project, Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company (ZETDC) general manager Lovemore Chinaka said consumers owed the company $198 million.

“The ZETDC Western region is currently owed $198 million dollars by various categories of our customers. We urge our consumers to pay their bills in time, if they can’t pay fully they can approach our offices and make payment plans and there must be mutual agreements to avoid disconnections,” said Chinaka.

He said unpaid bills impacted negatively on operations such as importation of power, maintenance and new connections.

Chinaka revealed that domestic consumers account for about $75,24 million of the debt.

Commercial entities and local authorities owe $85,14 million, industries $13,86, farming $9.9 million, mining $5,94 million with public lighting accounting for $7,92 million.

Chinaka said the region lost about 827 kilometres of line to copper cable thieves.

“The Western region has since 2009 experienced vandalism on our grid which has cost us quite a fortune to the extent that 827 kilometres of our lines were stripped of copper. If we were to put a value to it it’s about $7 million that’s required to replace that,” he said.

Chinaka said the cost to the economy was many times the actual value of the stolen cable as vital production entities would go for days without power, pending replacement.

He said the development was a strain on ZETDC as it was forced to re-source $7 million and basically retrace footprints in areas where they had finished electrification, leaving new areas undeveloped.

Chinaka urged members of the public to behave responsibly and avoid vandalising electricity wires.

“Within our neighbourhoods we need to be very alert as to who is working on the lines. Consumers or residents are free to approach people working on the lines and ask for identification. Our bona fide employees will be in possession of their national identity cards and the company IDs on them so they will be able to identify themselves fully,” he said.

Chinaka said Zesa had installed 97, 058 prepaid meters as at April 2015 in the Western region which is about 27 percent of the national installation statistics.

“At the moment the company has a tender for 150,000 meters which will be distributed to all the regions in the country and we will soon be back again to the neighbourhoods. The meters are popular with the consumers as they’re able to consume what they want to pay,” said Chinaka.

Speaking at the same event, Energy and Power development Minister Samuel Undenge said his ministry had embarked on a number of initiatives to address power shortages in the country.

“As you’re aware, the causes of load shedding are mainly as a result of the fact that our power generation capacity is less than our electricity requirement. The situation has also been worsened by ageing and obsolete equipment, resulting in our power plants producing less than their design capacity.

“In addressing these challenges we’ve embarked on a number of initiatives, some of which are already bearing fruit. These initiatives are aimed at increasing power supply, conserving the available power as well as improving its reliability,” said Undenge.

Some of the initiatives include restoration of power generation capacity, rehabilitation of electricity transmission and distribution infrastructure, building new generation capacity and installation of a prepayment metering system.

Undenge said the electrification of 700 houses in Mbundane cost $412,000.

“It’s part of the greater Bulawayo West Electrification Project by ZETDC which covers other suburbs as well. A total of 13,920 stands will be electrified at a total cost of about $10 million”.

He said negotiations for the funding of the $1,5 billion 600MW Hwange power station refurbishment are in progress.