Zesa unearthes reconnection scam

who were either deleted from the parastatal’s billing system or had their power fraudulently reconnected.
This comes amid reports that the power utility has unearthed a scam in which some of its employees were prejudicing the company by either deleting some consumers from the system or were reconnecting defaulters and paid kickbacks.
Some households, according to the sources within Zesa Holdings, have not been servicing their accounts for years as their accounts are not reflecting on the parastatal’s billing system.
The Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company (ZETDC) employees from the loss control department have since dispatched teams countrywide to investigate the scam.
“The teams are on the ground in every city and so far in Gweru and Kwekwe alone, we have unearthed hundreds of households whose accounts are not captured in the system after they were deleted. Some had gone for more than 10 years consuming electricity without paying a cent to Zesa,” said an official within the ZETDC Southern region.
The official said the loss control teams had also unearthed massive illegal reconnection of power and in most cases Zesa employees have been fingered as the culprits.
“If you ask these defaulting clients why they illegally reconnected electricity, the majority of them tell you that the reconnections were done by Zesa employees,” he said.
Contacted for comment, Zesa spokesperson, Mr Fullard Gwasira, confirmed the scam.
Mr Gwasira said the power utility had since engaged a crack team to check on such unscrupulous consumers.
“Zesa Holdings through its subsidiary, the ZETDC, is on a routine exercise targeted at customers who are either unwilling to pay bills or have not approached us with reasonable payment plans to recover more than $500 million that is locked with customers. We have engaged crack teams made up of our loss control department staff to check on such illegal reconnections,” said Mr Gwasira who was responding to written questions.
The Zesa spokesperson also confirmed that there were “unconfirmed” reports of corruption by Zesa employees who were either deleting consumers from the system or illegally reconnecting power to defaulters who would have been disconnected.
Mr Gwasira said such allegations were emanating from consumers who would have been caught illegally using electricity by the crack teams.
“Unproven allegations of corruption against our staff are emanating from mischievous elements whose services had been discontinued for non-payment and were fraudulently restoring electricity on their own without settling their bills,” he said.
Mr Gwasira said Zesa would take stern action against those consumers who would be found to have been illegally using electricity.
“As a deterrent measure, the power utility will demand full payment as an extra condition from these customers who would have restored service on their own. I also want to add that such fraudsters will face the full wrath of the law as self reconnection of power is illegal,” he said.
Mr Gwasira said Zesa Holdings has embarked on a massive power disconnection countrywide in an effort to recover money owed.
The move, however, is likely to face resistance from consumers who in turn have been accusing the power utility of charging unrealistic tariffs.