Zesa must shape up or ship out

Zimbabweans as one of the most uncomfortable in recent years.
This is because of the absence of sufficient electricity to warm up homes due to excessive load shedding that was introduced by Zesa throughout this period.
In the midst of all this, Zesa had been blaming the situation on households for failing to pay their electricity bills.
This is in spite of their model mooted two years ago where residents were paying a range of sums from the high-density up to the low-density.
This is despite the fact that the authority has done little to justify the huge bills that they are sending out every month, that are premised on estimates as opposed to actual reading.
The debate on whether Zesa’s arguments can be taken seriously or not comes against a background of appreciating the challenges the energy sector in the country is facing. It is true that the domestic power generation currently stands at around 1200MW and installed capacity being pegged around 1 960MW.
Such an anomaly can certainly assist in explaining the energy crisis, which is currently bedevilling the nation.
The situation has been aggravated by poor administration of the power distribution and generating authority.
The nation is at crossroads as the demand for economic recovery is at fever pitch.
The 2011 Budget allocated US$20 million for the rehabilitation works at Hwange Power Station, US$5 million for Kariba South Power Station.
This was expected to boost the power supply through maintenance works. The greatest debt on most household’s balance sheet at the moment is coming from electricity bills and it is only recently when Zesa employees had been deployed to different parts of the city to disconnect electricity for defaulters.
What was surprising was the swiftness by which Zesa employees moved in to cut off defaulters with a suburb as big as Waterfalls being covered in just one day.
One would wish that the same Zesa employees have the same zeal in attending to faults or in collecting readings from electricity meters.
In our last research on power generation trends in Zimbabwe, we explained that about 85 percent of the prime time is spent in darkness but there seems to be a mismatch between billing costs and power cuts.
The larger your electricity bill, the more frequent the power outages.
The current average revenue collections of US$40 million per half year is a pittance if the 500 000 households being currently serviced by Zesa is anything to go by.
The power utility company has lost the confidence of residents due to their failure to administer the billing process. Their woes and confidence continues plaguing the nation’s effort to revive industry.
Management at the public utility has been mum for quite a long time period save for their communications manager, Mr Fullard Gwasira, who has the unenviable task of making infinite apologies to an already restive populace.
This is the only country where flashing of lightning during the rainy season implies an imminent blackout.
Most of our kids now have a wrong conception that every time it rains electricity is supposed to go out.
Generators are no longer an alternative to electricity rather it’s now the reverse with electricity now an alternative to generators.
How is Zimbabwe’s economy going to recover when the expected manufacturing industry is persistently suffering from chronic power outages.
It is time Energy and Power Development Minister Elton Mangoma stops blaming his predecessors because all the unaccounted for bills are being experienced during his era.
This is certainly a non-political issue, which does not call for a Press conference to explain.
Most of our politicians are in the business of bringing out political slogans to mask their failure in a bid to pacify residents.
If a minister inherits a company, which he cannot steer out of the mess such as the one Zesa is in, then he definitely doesn’t deserve the post.
The minister should not allow the current state of affairs at Zesa to be business as usual when residents are forced to pay ridiculous figures for erratic electricity supplies.
A riot act definitely need to be read and heads have to roll before the public utility becomes a disgrace to the nation.
The Zimbabwe dollar era saw residents paying less for electricity surcharges in real terms than they are currently paying in US dollar terms.
With proper organisation, the load shedding can be understood but the situation had gone beyond load shedding.
Rumour has it that the Zesa Holdings subsidiaries are in inter-debts where Zimbabwe Power Company is alleged to owe Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission Distribution Company to the extent that ZETDC has to solve its internal woes of debts before residents trust it with their bills.
This means Zesa needs a second leg of restructuring, maybe some of the costs associated with its unbundling are the inefficiency and bureaucracy in attending to matters we are witnessing today.
While the prepaid meter system might bring sanity to the billing system it is not the panacea to our power crisis, which can only be resolved through the construction of new power plants.
I believe that the installation of the pre-paid meters will be problematic for Zesa because it has been struggling despite the advent of dollarisation yet other corporations are recuperating due to the stability it brought into the economy.
We cannot also trust that the tender for procuring the meters would be handled when a “trust hole” is already existing. Let Zesa shape up or else residents will ship it out.
Thank you and God bless you.
Christopher Takunda Mugaga
Head of Research
Econometer Global Capital
[email protected]
+263 772 340 353,+263 776 266 062