Vandalism plunges Zimbabwe into darkness

ZESA Holdings (Zesa) says it is putting in place measures to curb vandalism.
This comes as the country is eperiencing a new wave of vandalism.
“The Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company would like to advise that power supplies to its valued customers have been greatly compromised by increasing cases of theft and vandalism of electricity infrastructure that have resulted in unplanned electricity outages,” the Zesa subsidiary said.
“Theft and vandalism of electrical infrastructure has resulted in increased faults leading to frequent and long power outages that some clients perceive to be load shedding. Load shedding was eradicated in December 2015 and the country has sufficient electricity to efficiently service the nation,” the statement added.
The fresh round of vandalism is the latest of the hurdles to hit ZETDC, which said two months ago that it had been affected by electricity meter thefts.
ZETDC is the unit of State owned power utility, ZESA Holdings Limited that is responsible for distributing electricity.
ZETDC said the number of consumers nabbed by police after by-passing and tempering with prepaid meters was rising.
It gave those who had tempered with meters a two month moratorium to approach officials in order to rectify the frauds without consequences.
“ZETDC has embarked on a door to door physical audit of electricity connections on customer premises and after the grace period, defaulters would be subjected to relevant remedial action, which includes penalties and litigation to ensure responsible conduct and revenue protection on the part of the power utility,” said ZETDC.
“After August 31, 2018, customers that are found to have by passed or tempered with their meters will be liable to prosecution and risk having a mandatory 10 year jail sentence passed on them,” the statement noted.
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