Bulawayo mayor Thaba Moyo on Sunday told residents at a public meeting in Nkulumane that the local authority was engaging the government to facilitate the returtransferred to the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (Zesa) a decade ago.
Moyo said he had told Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai Bulawayo City Council (BCC) wanted the power station back so that it could distribute power to residents.
“We have told the Prime Minister that we want the power station back. I told him last week on Friday that we want our power station back,” he said.
“I told him that when they go to Parliament they should be able to communicate that the BCC wants its power station back,” he said.
The local authority used to generate and distribute power in the city before that role was taken from it through an Act of Parliament and handed over to Zesa.
In June this year, the city’s engineer told the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on State Enterprises and Parastatals it would be better if the local authority was given the right to distribute power in the country’s second biggest city.
“If you look at it, we (BCC and Zesa) are targeting the same person. At the end of the month, we print a statement and Zesa also prints a statement, targeted at one person. In all honesty, there is no need for Zesa to be going around building revenue halls next to our revenue halls, all targeted at the same person. As BCC, we are not looking at the generation of power, but we are asking to be given the responsibility to distribute power here in Bulawayo,” he said.
Ward 1 councillor Edward Manning has always been a strong advocate of having the power station returned to the local authority and has raised the issue several times in council meetings.
