Zesa defends tariff hike
Sunday, 20 February 2011 16:27
BY JENNIFER DUBE
THE Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (Zesa) has defended its decision
to increase domestic electricity tariffs by 30% saying its services have
improved.
Industry regulator, the Zimbabwe Electricity Regulatory Authority on
Wednesday said it had approved the new tariffs that would see electricity
charges going up by 7.53 cents per kilowatt to hour to 9, 94 cents.
But residents who spoke to The Standard said the increase was not justified
since they did not have electricity most of the time due to Zesa’s frequent
load shedding.
Comfort Muchekeza, the Consumer Council of Zimbabwe’s Bulawayo regional
manager said the utility was trying to punish its customers for its failure
to collect revenue.
“While we acknowledge that Zesa need funds to operate, I believe they are
simply failing to collect revenue and they now want to punish the few honest
customers for their inefficiency,” Muchekeza said.
“In the discussions we have had with them, they always say less than 10% of
consumers pay their bills and 90 % owe them a lot of money.
“Instead of penalising the faithful, they should put in place measures to
ensure that everyone pays even if that means compelling all consumers to use
pre-paid meters.”
Employers’ Confederation of Zimbabwe executive director John Mufukare said
they learnt about the increase from the press.
“We lament categorically the lack of social dialogue in Zimbabwe,” Mufukare
said.
“We are not aware what has brought about the need to increase the tariffs
and naturally, we would be very suspicious because we were not consulted
although there could be good reasons why they took the decision.”
His sentiments were echoed by Barnabas Mangodza of the Harare Residents
Association who said residents were already overburdened by huge bills.
“This unplanned increase is unfortunate and we may choose not to pay the 30
percent because we are already overburdened,” he said.
Precious Shumba of the Harare Residents Trust said Zesa must show how the
parastatal arrived at the new tariffs, which he said cannot be justified.
He said Zesa should first improve its electricity supplies and rehabilitate
its meter reading system before increasing tariffs.
However, Zesa spokesman Fullard Gwasira said they had followed all the
necessary steps before seeking the regulator’s approval to review tariffs.
“The tariff application and setting is a very consultative process which
involves business, industry and residents through their constituent bodies
and this process was duly completed,” he said.
He said the parastatal had “consistently improved service delivery since the
inception of dollarisation” but needed money for electricity imports.