Zimbabwe has not had load shedding in 2 years

Published: 28 April 2018

ZESA Holdings says it has not had load shedding for the past two years and that the intermittent blackouts in various suburbs in recent months have been down to the just-ended rainy season.

Various areas in and around Harare including Eastlea, Highlands, Borrowdale and other northern suburbs have had to do without electricity almost every night.

Contacted for comment on the development last week, the power utility's spokesperson Fullard Gwasira said the problems were down to rain-induced faults.

"We have not had load shedding for over two years now," Gwasira said adding that what customers are witnessing is a large number of faults which were being driven by the rainfall season.

In August last year Zimbabwe paid $8 million to Eskom of South Africa and Hydro Cahora Bassa (HCB) of Mozambique to avoid losing 350 megawatts as the country battles to liquidate arrears amounting to over $50 million.

This was after Eskom had threatened to switch off Zesa.

Any load shedding at the moment will deal a major blow to industry as well as agricultural activities at the Grain Marketing Board depots and the winter wheat farming that is set to begin soon.

Zimbabwe has been relying on power imports from South Africa and HCB of Mozambique to boost supplies as a way of promoting production in the economy.

Zimbabwe consumes about 1 400MW daily and the country has been receiving steady power supplies since December 2015 as a result of various initiatives such as imports.

Zesa, at the same time is in the process of refurbishing its power stations while also working on expansion projects in Kariba and Hwange.

With the projects expected to take time to complete, the power company has hence made the decision to rely on power imports.

Energy is seen by many in the country as a key enabler in infrastructural development as well as the value addition and beneficiation initiatives.

With winter fast approaching, the struggling parastatal could however, be forced to reintroduce load shedding as it is struggling to make payments as well as to recover money owed to it.

This comes as the government has blocked the power company from raising electricity tariffs by almost 50 percent from 9,86c per kWh to 14,64c per kWh.
- dailynews

Tags: Zesa,