adminsays it had noted with concern a general decline of people’s desire to settle their bills, thereby constraining the firm’s ability to provide efficient service.
In an interview yesterday, ZETDC managing director Engineer Julian Chinembiri said the power utility would embark on a disconnection blitz countrywide as part of efforts to recover millions they were owed by consumers.
He could not, however, give the day when the exercise would begin.
The power utility, he said, had in the past deliberately taken a position to stop disconnections while it concentrated on installation of pre-paid meters.
Commenting on the general performance of electricity generation, Eng Chinembiri described it as good. He said all the units were working well both at Kariba and Hwange while they were receiving power from small stations like Harare, Munyati, Bulawayo and the traditional Hydro Cabora Bassa.
The power utility has since flighted a statement in the media warning customers to pay up or risk disconnections.
“ZETDC wishes to advise all its valued customers with outstanding bills to pay their bills immediately to avoid the inconvenience of withdrawal of supplies,” read the statement.
The utility said it had noted that people were “slackening” in the way they were paying their bills, a situation that had seen money owed to them ballooning and failing to discharge their legal obligations.
“The position is threatening the prevailing favourable power supply situation and if not corrected will lead to a deterioration of the reliability of supply which in turn will have a negative impact on economic recovery. The supply situation will get worse in winter due to increase in electricity demand, if there is no improvement in payment,” read the notice.
ZETDC, a subsidiary of Zesa Holdings, had stopped power disconnections after Government directed that the firm should concentrate on installation of pre-paid meters.
The firm intends to put 600 000 customers on pre-paid meters by August this year.
Online Reporter