adminLloyd Gumbo Features Writer
A GROUP of ardent supporters of Barclays English Premiership log leaders Arsenal and defending champions Manchester United sit in a bar, waiting to watch their favourite teams fight for supremacy. It is a few moments before viewers get a live broadcast of the match between the two.
After the two teams’ line-ups have been announced with three minutes before kick-off, fans hug each other in approval of the coaches’ selection. All of a sudden there is howl of disapproval coupled with some swearing. Electricity is gone.
There is an immediate buzzing sound of generators from the neighbours, and reality sinks in. This is Zimbabwe where load shedding has become a way of life. No set time-table is followed as consumers can be switched off at any time of day. But this will soon be a thing of the past.
The signing of the loan agreement between Government and China Export and Import Bank recently for the expansion of Kariba South hydropower station is a sign of good things to come and must have raised the spirits of all patriotic Zimbabweans. The news comes as a positive step towards addressing the perennial power shortages that have hampered development in the country.
It is a fact that the illegal sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe by the West at the turn of the millennium brought a lot of suffering to all Zimbabweans. The illegal sanctions did not spare the economy either as it was left tattered resulting in the country not affording such huge capital investment as the expansion of Kariba South hydropower station.
Also, because of the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act of 2001, Zimbabwe cannot get funding from the Bretton Woods institutions since the US calls the shots at the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
It is a fact that electricity generation is capital intensive hence loan funding for such projects has always been the way to go.
However, it is gratifying to note that the country’s Look East Policy continues to pay dividends evidenced by several capital projects funded by the Chinese bank.
Electricity is one of the critical components of the modern world. We need electricity at home (both urban and rural) for cooking and lighting, at the industries to power the machines, and at all the farms for irrigation.
Power is needed at hospitals and clinics for instance during surgeries and medicines invention. Electricity is also a critical component in communications because without telephones, emails and other forms of communications most businesses would come to a halt.
All these areas have been negatively impacted by load shedding because of the widening gap between supply and demand with official figures around 1 300 megawatts and 2 500 megawatts respectively.
The Zanu-PF economic blueprint, Zim Asset, set to spearhead economic development and growth in the next five years can only be successful if there is enough electricity. The blueprint identifies four clusters that the new Government wants to achieve in fulfilment of its election manifesto, and also President Mugabe’s inauguration speech and his address when he officially opened the Eighth Parliament.
The four clusters have a direct link to electricity. For instance, food security and nutrition can only be guaranteed when there are no power disruptions at the farms.
In the social services cluster, there is need for electricity at the schools, colleges and universities for some practical studies that require power as well as for healthcare facilities. No infrastructure development can be done without electricity while mineral value addition and beneficiation banks on power as well. It is disheartening though that power utility Zesa has taken this long to take positive steps in addressing these perennial power shortages when it was obvious that with continued development, more electricity would be required.
Following dollarisation of the economy, a number of factories are being constructed while others that had folded are breathing again. Rural electrification is also going ahead meaning that there will be continued demand for electricity.
Given the circumstances, load shedding has been the only management solution that Zesa has to implement.
Industry has not been spared. “At the moment only a few companies are operational as most closed shop due to operational challenges while capacity utilisation is very low,” Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce president Mr Hlanganiso Matangaidze was quoted as saying by The Herald last month.
“Increased load shedding is therefore a threat to the survival of those companies and we believe the power utility should at least spare industry from increased load shedding.”
Mr Matangaidze bemoaned increased load shedding which he described as “suicidal” towards increasing industry’s capacity utilisation. Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries president Mr Charles Msipa bemoaned the increase in load shedding saying it has forced companies to run on generators for long hours pushing up operational costs.
“It is very bad we are running generators the whole day and this obviously comes with exorbitant operational costs,” he said.
On the other hand, more than 10 independent power producers (IPPs) have been sitting on power generation licences for more than four years at a time they should be on the ground.
These IPPs have a combined power generation capacity of almost 5 000MW which is double the country’s current peak demand.
If these IPPs start operating, then load shedding would be a thing of the past.
Some of them are mega projects. For instance, Sengwa Power Station licensed in 2010 is expected to have a capacity of 2 400MW.
Lusulu Power Plant, to the north of Sengwa in Binga, with capacity to produce 2 000 MW was licensed in October 2010 as well but is yet to start work.
According to the initial agreement, the project was expected to have been completed this year. Recent pronouncements by Energy and Power
Development Minister Dzikamai Mavhaire that these IPPs risk losing their licences for failing to start their projects is the best way to deal with the companies. Government must not allow these companies to hold on to these projects for speculative purposes at a time the country needs their service.
This is tantamount to sabotaging development and the country at large.
If it means that Government must withdraw these offers, then let it be.
It would be better to call for new applications especially from those companies with a clear funding plan that would see the projects taking off. The Zanu-PF Government should remember that its adversaries are watching closely expecting to see it fail to deliver ahead of the next polls in 2018. And electricity supply is one of the deliverables that affect people emotionally judging by the way they frown and swear when power goes and how they celebrate and ululate when it comes back.
It would therefore be folly and suicidal for the Government to sit on its laurels as if it’s business as usual when the country needs electricity.
Online Reporter