Mozambique denies cutting Zimbabwe power over debts
(AFP) – 6 hours ago
HARARE — Mozambique’s Cahora Bassa dam on Thursday denied cutting power to
Zimbabwe, which had claimed the state-owned company had pulled the plug over
unpaid bills totalling around $75 million.
“Hydro Cahora Bassa switched off supplies to Zimbabwe on Thursday or Friday
last week over the money owed which is around $75 million or $76 million,”
Energy and Power Development Minister Elton Mangoma told AFP.
“We are now switching off defaulters as part of efforts to raise the money,”
he said.
But the Cahora Bassa dam, which supplies nearly a fifth of the power it
produces to Zimbabwe, said this was not the case.
“We would like to inform you that we have not cut electricity to Zimbabwe.
That information is misinformed,” Rosaque Guale, a board member of the
state-owned Cahora Bassa Hydropower Company told AFP.
Several suburbs of the capital Harare have gone for days without
electricity, while other places suffer up to 10 hours of power cuts, as the
utility Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) comes under pressure to
save power.
Zimbabwe needs 2,200 megawatts of electricity at peak but generates just
1,300 megawatts and imports the remainder, including 100 to 185 megawatts
from Hydro Cahora Bassa.
The dam produces 2,075 megawatts of energy a year. South Africa buys 65
percent, while Zimbabwe gets a 19-percent share.
Last month, Mangoma warned a parliamentary committee that Zimbabwe risked
being cut off if it failed to settle its debt with Hydro.
He said ZESA had accumulated almost a billion dollars in unpaid electricity
imports, unserviced loans and outstanding contributions to a joint power
project with neighbouring Zambia.
The firm also plans to introduce pre-paid meters to improve its revenue
collection.
Last year ZESA announced it would hand out more than 5.5 million
power-saving fluorescent light bulbs to households across the country to
curb consumption.