Power outages worsen

By Henry Makiwa
5 November 2007

Power failures have persisted across the country and have now spread from Harare to smaller towns, with many of the few remaining businesses being forced to shut down because of the outages.
Serious blackouts that have been experienced in Harare for the past two months have now extended to other urban centres where residents are receiving power for as little as two hours a day, if at all. This has forced some key essential service providers such as hospitals and banks to close, as they cannot function without power.
It's reported that most clinics and hospitals, that are usually spared power cuts, have been running standby generators for over a week and are fast running out of fuel.
A Masvingo clergyman, Reverend Onismo Goronga, says even the church has been severely affected by the power woes.
He said: “Here (in Masvingo), we have been quite blessed until lately when we are receiving two hours of power, between 3AM and 5AM each day. The whole crisis has brought up a change of pattern to our day-to-day lives.
“Its hard for us to do services on Sundays as we need power for our public address systems. At home, we have to do all the ironing, the mobile phone recharging, cooking and much more in a space of two hours in the early morning hours. Both industry and our social lifestyle will soon collapse if government fails to rectify the electricity problem.”
The government is reeling under a massive unpaid electricity bill to neighbours South Africa and Mozambique. Mozambique last month cut off electricity supplies to the country until Zimbabwe pays off its debts.