Zesa ordered to stop billing for no service
By Pindai Dube
Sunday, 03 October 2010 17:46
BULAWAYO – Energy and Power Development minister, Elton Mangoma, has ordered
power utility ZESA to stop billing consumers during load-shedding periods.
Of late most residents of Bulawayo and Harare have been receiving exorbitant
bills despite going for hours without electricity at their homes. Last
year, residents associations in the two cities wrote letters to ZESA
demanding the electricity company to stop billing its members for the
periods they go without electricity.
Mangoma on Saturday said it would not be fair for ZESA to charge its
consumers for services they did not provide, as this was tantamount to
fraud.
“Due to load-shedding, it would only be fair for ZESA to be paid for no more
than the services rendered,” Mangoma said.
“I don’t see why people should be made to pay for electricity that they don’t
use. Half the day there is no electricity, so people should pay for what is
available.”
ZESA claims it is owed close to US$350 million by domestic and industrial
consumers, with more than 100 000 domestic customers in Harare and Bulawayo
not having paid their bills since February last year.
The electricity company is also threatening to take legal action against all
consumers failing to settle its bills.
To adequately fund power generation, ZESA needs more than US$380 million
capital injection. Zimbabwe has been experiencing excessive power cuts in
the last decade due to obsolete equipment, ageing infrastructure, skills
flight and massive vandalism of power cables.
Most households and industries in Zimbabwe are limited to less than 12 hours
of electricity supply daily because of lack of investment in power
generation.
Despite the power shortages, the country is exporting 150 megawatts to
Namibia under a US$40 million deal where Namibia power utility NamPower
provided capital for the refurbishment of power units at Hwange Thermal
Power Station in exchange for electricity.