Former Zanu PF Finance minister and Mavambo/Kusile/Dawn (MKD) president Simba Makoni yesterday called on Zesa to switch off President Robert Mugabe’s private properties to demonstrate the seriousness of its ongoing blitz on defaulters.
This follows reports that the First Family owed the power utility a staggering $345 000 in unpaid bills.
In a statement yesterday, Makoni blasted senior government officials with unpaid Zesa bills and urged the power utility to switch them off regardless of their political or social status.
“It is our view that the power utility company should have started by switching off clients that owe huge amounts and these include the President, cascading down to the ordinary person, and the MKD calls upon Zesa to carry out the exercise without fear or favour,” read the MKD statement.
“It is very disheartening that in a recent Cabinet meeting, some members of Cabinet were reportedly charging angrily towards Energy and Power Development minister accusing him of leaking information on Zesa accounts of top government officials to the Press. The interesting aspect is that the affected members of Cabinet are not denying that they owe Zesa the leaked amounts. Their only worry is why such information was made public.”
According a leaked Zesa report dated December 31 2011, Mugabe’s family owed more than $345 000.
The bills were incurred at the First Family’s four plots at Foyle Farm, Gushungo Dairy, Gwebi Woodlot, Sigaro and Iron Mask Farm.
Zesa recently embarked on a nationwide blitz to recover an estimated $550 million owed by its consumers in a bid to clear the $76 million it owes Mozambique’s Hydro Cahorra Basa.
