THE government has set its sights on the development of Inga 3 Transmission Line Project among the Democratic Republic of Congo, South Africa, Zambia, Botswana and Zimbabwe as a way out of the current power shortages.
The Quintet Electricity Project is set to generate more than 40 000MW of hydro power from the Congo River.
During post-Cabinet media briefing in Harare yesterday, Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services minister Jenfan Muswere confirmed that the government had approved the inter-governmental memorandum of understanding (MoU) on co-operation regarding the development of the Inga 3 Transmission Line Project.
“Zimbabwe participates in power-pulling initiatives and the approval today is going to highlight Zimbabwe’s importance in terms of regional integration and also to highlight that, there are preliminary studies that have been done before in terms of the implementation and development of the Inga 3 project, which is a hydro-power project, which will be utilised within the Southern African Development Community region.
“So this intergovernmental MoU will necessitate the establishment of a transmission infrastructure initiative in terms of inter-connectors and many other infrastructure initiatives to connect the rest of the region,” he said.
Muswere said the MoU would also facilitate energy trading of the power generated from the Inga 3 hydro power project.
Keep Reading
- In Full: Fifteenth post-cabinet press briefing, June 07, 2022
- Health talk: Mandatory wearing of masks can now be scrapped
- Zipra cries foul over vetting process
- Health talk: Let us remain vigilant about monkey pox
The project will establish a transmission scheme traversing through Zambia, Zimbabwe or Botswana to deliver power to South Africa, while the transit countries will have the opportunity to draw power from the scheme.
“The Memorandum of Understanding will provide the necessary framework for co-operation between the parties to facilitate the development and implementation of the project,” Muswere said.
Meanwhile, ICT minister Tatenda Mavetera said the government sought to invest in e-governance systems as it prepared to launch the national artificial intelligence (AI) strategy.
“With the coming of the national AI strategy, we feel that there is a great need for us to invest greatly in our e-governance system and we see that there’s also that great opportunity,” she said.