ZESA announces critical power shortages

By Tererai Karimakwenda
09 October 2006

Zimbabweans woke up Tuesday to the news that they will be facing power cuts even worse than those they are already experiencing. The Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) announced a massive reduction in generating capacity at Hwange Power Station and damage from vandalism to a transmission line used to import electricity from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). All six generators at the Hwange plant were said to be out of order.

ZESA said they had initiated massive load shedding on a rotation basis since Saturday October 7th. Our contacts in most parts of Harare, Bulawayo, Mutare and Masvingo report that they have been living in darkness. Government media reports said ZESA engineers and technicians were working around the clock to restore power to its normal capacity. But given that the government is broke and struggling to raise foreign currency for basics like fuel and maize, economists predict it will be a hard fight to find money to make the necessary repairs and get power levels back to normal.

Meanwhile businesses, hospitals and other stakeholders who require power to operate are bracing for the worst. ZESA blamed the escalation of this crisis on the theft of cables, oil and other parts and to vandalism. But Itai Zimunya, a programmes officer at The Crisis Zimbabwe Coalition, said this situation brings to light the failure of the Mugabe regime on a political and economic level. He said there has been massive corruption in government where those with no qualifications or skills were appointed to key positions in parastatals. This is what has caused the demise of all parastatals including the water authority ZINWA, the Grain Marketing Board and Ziscosteel.

Zimunya explained that the economy has been shrinking at an average of 4% per annum for the last 5 years and many businesses are currently operating at only 25% capacity. With the average 10 hours a day of load shedding announced by ZESA these figures are bound to drop even further. Zimunya said: “The health institutions, however dilapidated they are, have life saving equipment that is delicate and cannot survive without power.” He added that the load shedding hours are random and businesses will find it impossible to schedule production.

Zimunya described officials in the Mugabe regime as “know it all pundits” who do not listen to experts or advice from stakeholders. He said the Crisis Coalition has experts who have predicted all sorts of disasters but the government simply ridicules them, but this is how all dictators and dictatorships eventually crumble.