ZESA cheating customers by estimating bills

By Tererai Karimakwenda

31 July 2006

The Zimbabwe Power Supply Authority (ZESA) is reported to be making a lot of money by generating bills for electricity that do not reflect the customers’ usage and using threats to shut off power as a way to force them to pay. Due to corruption and a lack of resources the power company is failing to send workers out to read the electric meters that determine how much power was used within a given period. Instead ZESA officials are billing residents using estimated figures that are supposed to be based on the previous billing amount. But residents in Harare’s low and high density areas say the numbers are so inflated they more than double the actual meter readings. Many of them cannot afford to pay and as a result their power has been turned off. ZESA is demanding even more money to turn the power back on.

One of our contacts in Tafara told us that ZESA is also not sending out bills regularly. Her family recently went for 2 weeks without electricity while trying to find out how much they owed. She told us Harare residents afraid of losing power are having to visit the ZESA head office to get information. But officials there simply tell them they do not know what they are talking about or that the billing department made a mistake.

The queues at ZESA offices are said to be very long and the process very frustrating.

It is largely believed that the parastatal has no paper to print the bills and lacks other resources, which are affecting administrative procedures. We reported last week that the town of Bindura had lost its water supply because the pumps were damaged when power was switched back on after load shedding by ZESA. Our contact in Tafara reports that household items like televisions and refrigerators are being damaged as well due to load shedding. People are being advised to turn off all electric equipment when the power goes off.

The Tafara area is hit by power cuts so often that our contact laughed when we asked about it. She said it seems no-one at ZESA is using their common sense because they get power sometimes at night while they sleep. It is then turned off during the day when they need it. Many businesses are losing valuable production time due to these unpredictable power cuts. Corruption at ZESA is so rampant the directors have been replaced several times within the last few years.

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