Chronicle Editor
Flora Fadzai Sibanda, [email protected]
OVER 200 households in Tshabalala suburb are struggling to purchase prepaid electricity tokens from the Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company (ZETDC) due to a suspected technical fault from ZETDC’s alleged failure to update the new prepaid meter system.
Residents have urged the power utility to upgrade the system to solve the problem.
The situation has led to an increase in burglaries and theft and some residents now lock their doors as early as 5pm due to the lack of street lights.
ZETDC has encouraged residents to report queries to their National Contact Centre using the short code 704, which will allow them to track the progress of the fault on the self-service portal or 704.
“Zesa came and installed a new prepaid system and told us that we would be able to buy electricity after a day, but it is now three weeks and we are failing to buy prepaid electricity,” said Mrs Janet Mufeka.
“We last had electricity four weeks ago. Zesa technicians came and installed a new prepaid electricity system. When they left they gave us free 50 watts of electricity and once those units were exhausted, we all failed to buy new ones because our systems have not been upgraded,” said one resident.
Another resident, Ms Sikhangenzile Nkala, said: “I usually buy Russian sausages in bulk for business, but now that we have no electricity, it has affected my business because they have gone bad.”
Mr Nkosilathi Ntini said the development has also led to an increase in cases of burglaries and theft as thieves are taking advantage of the dark.
“As residents we are now living in fear of being mugged,” he said.
Efforts to get a comment from ZETDC were fruitless.
It posted on its official X page that it’s continuously educating consumers on upgrading meters.
“Clients are encouraged to use the ZETDC National Contact Centre short code 704, and to provide meter number, address and brief description of the fault so that they are issued with a reference number. Clients can track the progress of the fault on the self-service portal or 704,” posted ZETDC.
@flora_sibanda
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