ZESA defends astronomical electricity bills
http://www.thedailynewszw.com/?p=28864
April 14, 2010
By Our Correspondent
BULAWAYO – A top Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) official sent shock waves through Bulawayo residents attending a meeting on Tuesday when he said they should stop complaining over the high electricity bills they are currently receiving.
He said ZESA tariffs were the cheapest in the SADC region.
Many households, especially in Bulawayo and Harare, are currently receiving ZESA monthly bills of up to $2 000.
Addressing a public meeting organized by the Competition Tariff Commission (CTC) at the Large City Hall, Ernest Machiya, managing director of the Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company (ZETDC), a subsidiary of ZESA, said the authority’s tariffs were justified as they were the lowest in the SADC region.
“We have the cheapest electricity rates in the region at 7, 50 US cents per unit. compared to Mozambique’s Electricidade de Mozambique and South Africa’s Eskom who charge 24 US cents and 12 US cents per unit respectively,” said Machiya.
Asked by a Bulawayo Progressive Residents Association (BPRA) representative to explain why then Zimbabweans were receiving such exorbitant bills, Machiya said the problem might be that the electricity meters installed on most houses were old and out dated.
“What people should understand is that most of our meter readings are very old and sometimes give us wrong figures, as time goes on we will phase them out but at the moment we have no money to do that,” he said
Machiya also said that ZESA would continue to export electricity power to Namibia as the authority needs the money to service power stations especially Hwange Power Station which has old equipment.
“Some people have criticized us for selling electricity to Namibia at a time when we have shortages in the country but the main reason we are doing this is we need money to refurbish our power stations which have old equipment especially at Hwange.”
The ZESA boss accused electricity consumers in Bulawayo and Harare of not settling bills on time, saying a total of 102 000 had not paid even a cent since February 2009. They owed the power utility a total of $347 million, he said.
Speaking at the same meeting Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) leader Magodonga Mahlangu accused ZESA of making consumers pay full amounts on their electricity when they spent several days of the month without electricity.