WHEN electricity demand is not matched by the growth in generating capacity, the energy deficit problem cannot be avoided.
In the case of Zimbabwe, power outages lasting several hours per day are now part of citizens’ daily experiences due to Zesa’s incapacity to produce enough to meet demand and failure to plan in advance to minimise the power cuts.
Zesa’s load-shedding programme is not properly scheduled and not fairly distributed among all consumers, resulting in some areas enduring lengthy power outages while others appear as sacred cows.
The current random and unadvertised power outages are causing untold disruptions to productive sectors of the economy and citizens’ daily activities.
The worst scenario is that this is also affecting one of the major and critical sectors, the health institutions, threatening the lives of patients in the intensive care unit or on theatre beds.
The uncaring attitude by the power utility displays gross human rights abuse, and results in citizens and institutions spending more money on diesel-powered generators in trying to mitigate the impact of Zesa’s erratic power supply.
Concerns raised by health institutions over the intermittent power outages mirror nation-wide discontent against the power utility’s service delivery record.
The power utility should not raise lame excuses in covering up its incompetence. The demand for electricity has always been there, but each time the power utility fails to honour its end of the bargain, it chooses to hide behind one excuse after the other.
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While we acknowledge that there are other setbacks caused by theft and vandalism of infrastructure, we believe the power utility must have back-up provisions for key infrastructure at hand to guarantee seamless supply to key sectors.
The fact that electricity supply gets overwhelmed as a result of weather patterns reflects poor planning by those at the helm.
Zesa must be seen acting according to the interests of the citizens as much as it is always punishing consumers for defaulting on payments.
