ZESA slammed for sticking with estimated bills
By Alex Bell
15 June 2012
Zimbabwe’s Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) has been slammed for
continuing to issue estimated bills to power users across the country,
despite the unreliable service provided.
ZESA’s Chief Executive, Josh Chifamba, said this week that the power utility
does not have the money to pay for meter readers. He told the parliamentary
portfolio committee on state enterprises and parastatals that they have no
choice but to keep asking for payment based on estimates, because meter
readers would mean raising rates.
A report from that same committee has revealed that there was no correlation
between the ZESA charges and services rendered, with some users being
charged, despite not using power.
“For example, one lady in Cowdray Park, Bulawayo, during one of the meetings
stated that while she was away in South Africa for three months after having
settled her bills and locked the house, upon return she found a US$500 bill
awaiting her despite the house being uninhabited. The lady informed the
committee that efforts to get ZESA to rectify that had not yielded any
results,” the report said.
The report also said that many consumers, who had gone for days without
electricity due to faults in the ZESA system, still received high bills
every month.
Simbarashe Moyo from the Combined Harare Residents Association (CHRA)
slammed ZESA for what he called their “incompetence and insincerity.” He
told SW Radio Africa that ZESA bills do not tally with the service being
provided, and often “there is no service to speak of.”
“This is a parastatal that clearly does not care at all about the plight of
residents. Most people don’t have jobs, they can’t afford the bills, but if
they don’t pay they get cut off,” Moyo said.
The CHRA official said that privatisation of the electricity authority
should be seriously considered, because the entire country was being
affected by ZESA’s mismanagement.
“Parastatals like ZESA are not doing well because they are run on the basis
of government nepotism. So it would be good to privatise because once you
invite competition, you’ll have better service. And all Zimbabweans want is
proper service,” Moyo said.
ZESA was earlier this year forced into defending itself after it was
revealed that top level government officials were defaulting on their bills,
but still receiving service. This included the Mugabe family, who owed more
than US$300,000 to the utility.
These revelations came as ZESA recommitted itself to cutting off all bill
defaulters. But to date only general members of the public have been
punished in this way.