Vusumuzi Dube
Judith Phiri, Sunday News Reporter
IT was a bleak Christmas for the residents of Tegela suburb in Bulawayo with 400 households in darkness for over two months and with no hope that electricity will be restored any time soon.
Several suburbs in Bulawayo have of late been experiencing electricity blackouts due to cable theft.
For Tegela power supply has been erratic for most part of 2021, with residents forking out money to replace stolen copper cables with aluminum ones.
However, after replacing the cables, the transformer burst leaving residents to ponder how they were going to replace it since the Zimbabwe Electricity, Transmission and Distribution Company (ZETDC) seems to be facing challenges.
One disgruntled resident said: “After contributing close to US$430 to get the cables replaced a few weeks down the line the transformer burst and the Zesa team are doing nothing to fix it. We have resolved as residents to contribute again because we have been in darkeness since October.”
He said residents were currently trying to raise money for the transformer which was estimated to cost close to US$6 000.
“Right now, we have contributed US$168 and others are saying they cannot contribute as they have had a bad year due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Our concern and question we keep on asking ourselves is that does Zesa not have insurance that cover for such losses of transformers?”
Another resident said what their fear was that those collecting money from the residents seem to have a connection with Zesa people.
“One of them once said in the residents WhatsApp group if we contribute a certain amount of money, Zesa will be able to come and put a transformer. We are also told that when Zesa people fix a fault they need a token of appreciation. Is it not their duty to do that as a parastatal,” quizzed one resident.
A tour of the neighborhood by this publication showed that most the utility poles had cables cut, with residents raising suspicion that the ZETDC employees were involved in the cable theft.
“Zesa has been telling people that we are removing copper cables replacing them with aluminum ones. So, we believe Zesa workers know very well which ones copper and which ones are aluminum so we suspect that Zesa workers are involved. The wires are usually cut when there is loadshedding so we can only suspect the workers because they know how long power will be off in a certain area.”
Contacted for comment, Zesa Southern Region Manager Engineer Lovemore Chinaka said he was not allowed to comment to the media and referred the reporter to the Zesa public relations department.
The department said it could furnish the publication with the responses after getting all the relevant approvals.
Bongani Ndlovu