Industry wants Zesa board fired
By Taurai Mangudhla, Business Writer
Sunday, 18 March 2012 12:20
HARARE – State-owned power utility Zesa Holdings should dissolve its board
of directors for failing to collect $500 million tariff arrears from
consumers, Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries president Joseph Kanyekanye
said yesterday.
He told the Daily News on Sunday the directors’ failure to cause management
to perform one of the company’s key mandate was a sign of incompetence,
which threatened industry’s performance as a result of erratic power supply.
“The problem with Zesa Holdings is that some people were not paying their
bills deliberately while some cannot afford the money, but we should never
have a situation where we have people not paying for their consumption
because we won’t go forward,” he said.
“Addressing debt collection is what needs to be done now so government
should look at a situation where it dissolves the whole board and appoint
people who have a no-nonsense approach because a company can’t have its
debtors’ book continuing to balloon in the face of such liquidity
challenges,” added Kanyekanye, who is also Allied Timbers chief executive.
In its defence, the state-owned power utility last month said it had failed
to collect overdue bills because the charges were out of the reach of
consumers because of liquidity challenges and a general poor remuneration
across the job market.
While creating a pool of prepaying customers is a solution, Kanyekanye said,
the government should allow private players to import their electricity
directly from suppliers to diffuse the potential threat caused by the
company’s debts to regional power producers.
“I have also said Zesa Holdings should be abolished because of its cost
structure which goes up to $40 million a year. It’s an albatross to the
consumer and we should do away with it and maintain productive units only.”
Industry and Commerce minister Welshman Ncube also said the problems at Zesa
Holdings were a result of mismanagement.
“The problems lies with the leadership of Zesa Holdings, how does one
accumulate a $50 000 bill and they are not switched off,” he said.
“If people don’t pay then they should be switched off before it gets to that
amount,” added the minister.
“Sadly, industry is the worst casualty because load-shedding can be managed
at domestic level through use of gas, solar and other energy alternatives,
but for an industry to use diesel powered generators it will cost them a lot
and make their business uncompetitive.”
President Robert Mugabe and his allies in both government and Zanu PF are
top the list of defaulters.
Mugabe’s bill, which amounted to $350 000 as at December 31 last year, was
less than that of Manicaland governor Chris Mushowe and Central Intelligence
Organistion boss Happyton Bonyongwe who owe the power company $367 606,07
and $350 989,48 respectively.