The Confederation of Zimbabwe Industry (CZI) last week urged the Zesa Holdings board to resign arguing it has failed to deal with power shortages affecting the country.
Speaking at the Mandel/GIBS2012 Economic Outlook symposium on Friday, CZI president Joseph Kanyekanye said demand for power continues to increase yearly and the power utility had failed to address the issue.
Zesa board must resign and the parastatal should be privatised as the power situation in Zimbabwe is getting worse, said Kanyekanye.
He said targets set out in the Medium-Term Plan (MTP), including plans to install prepaid meters, and restoration of Hwange to installed capacity by 2012, had not been met.
Kanyekanye said the industry suggests the government should just dissolve the Zesa board. He said imports of power have been declining since steadily from 484 megawatts (MW) in 2006 to 209MW in 2010.
With the countrys industrial base still struggling to recover from the ravages of hyperinflation and to regain competitiveness with low throughput, Kanyekanye said industry is in no way in a position to pay for the inefficiencies of a huge parastatal service provider such as Zesa.
The industry is worried about the nature of growth of the country as power attracts investment, he said. Kanyekanye urged companies to consider doing single-shift operations particularly at night when power is available and slightly cheaper.
He said in the whole region, Zimbabwe appears to have severe blackouts at night suggesting inefficiencies as cited by Competitions and Tariffs Commission.
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He said the power utility was already struggling to collect much of the debt owed to it by consumers, currently estimated at $470 million, which is escalating showing that Zesa was continuing to supply consumers who are not paying or are not capable of paying for their electricity.
Zesa is in a twisted logic, symptomatic of poorly managed parastatals, trying to cover for those who are not paying, by increasing the rates to those who are paying, said Kanyekanye.
He said consumers were already paying for the development of other projects, but nothing has been done as yet.
Rural Electrification Levy is a 6% surcharge on top of the electricity bill. Although this does not go to Zesa, any increase in Zesa charges results in a similar increase in this levy, said the industry boss.
Zesa Holdings spokesperson, Fullard Gwasira had not yet responded to emailed questions by the time of going to print.
