Defaulting Cabinet Ministers Negotiate to Settle Huge Electricity Bills
21 March 2012
ZESA spokesman, Fullard Gwasira told VOA’s Blessing Zulu the power utility
is happy that government officials and other customers have started settling
their bills while some are still negotiating payment plans
Blessing Zulu | Washington
Senior Zimbabwean officials, among them President Robert Mugabe and many new
black commercial farmers, have opened talks with the country’s power
utility, the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority, to see how they can
settle their bills, going into hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Private media have since the weekend been publishing the names of defaulting
senior government officials following a decision by Mozambique’s power
utility, Hydro Cahora Bassa to cut electricity exports to Zimbabwe.
Their exposure has, however, raised tensions in the rickety government of
national unity.
ZESA sources told the VOA that the majority of the ministers have been told
to pay 25% of what they owe and settle their bills within six months or risk
being switched off completely.
Most cabinet ministers say they want to sell their produce first before
settling their huge bills.
President Mugabe and vice president John Nkomo lead the list of defaulters.
Other senior government officials owing between $50,000 and $350,000 include
Defense Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa, Minister of State in the President’s
Office Didymus Mutasa, State Security Minister Sydney Sekeramayi,
Information Minister Webster Shamu, Indigenisation Minister Saviour
Kasukuwere and Higher Education Minister Stan Mudenge.
ZESA is struggling to offset a debt of $800 million dollars that includes a
$75 million owed to Hydro Cahora Bassa.
Energy Minister Elton Mangoma says he is headed to Mozambique next week for
negotiations with Hydro since it reduced exports to Zimbabwe from 200 to 50
megawatts only over non payment of its electricity bill.
The Mozambican power utility maintains. though, that it never switched off
Harare.
ZESA spokesman, Fullard Gwasira told VOA’s Blessing Zulu the power utility
is happy that government officials and other customers have started settling
their bills while some are still negotiating payment plans.
Analyst Gladys Hlatyawayo says ZANU-PF ministers must pay up and not try to
politicize the issue.
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai told lawmakers last week that he had
settled his $5,000 bill with ZESA, urging colleagues within both the MDC and
ZANU-PF to do the same.