The Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on State Enterprises and Parastatal Management public hearings revealed how frustrated Zimbabweans are with the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA), reports The Herald today.

This will come as no surprise to the many Zimbabweans who phoned into our Freedom Fone test (thank you!) and left their voice mails about ZESA meter reading, load shedding, high bills and poor service.

Listen to some of this feedback here

Since the introduction of the Internet in Zimbabwe a lot of people have started to embrace social media as a means to share information and to socialize. In countries in the Middle East social media was mainly used to cover the Arab spring protests where citizen journalists, only armed with a camera phone and Internet connection, managed to cover the events. Recently in Zimbabwe the press has been awash with stories of poor service delivery. The most recent and painful one being of a child who was seriously burnt by naked ZESA cables, the child eventually died. The good thing about citizen journalism is its done by citizens reporting on issues relating to their day to day lives and one can it do it without incurring any costs. Since an informed citizenry is a basic principal of self-governance, citizen journalists are the people who report from the ground and this makes their stories more credible than most of the profit driven articles we now read from the established media houses.

Don’t know about you but 16 hour long power cuts are starting to get me down. This update from the Zimbabwe Power Company helps to explain the current spate of bad power:

It is with regret that I advise of the fact that we (Zimbabwe Power Company) lost the four producing units at Hwange Power Station yesterday afternoon (Wednesday 25th April). One unit was brought back onto the grid last night and we hope to bring a second, larger unit, back around 4am tomorrow (Friday 26th April). Repair on the third unit is scheduled for completion such that it will be ‘returned to service’ on Saturday morning. Two phase one (smaller) units are having their rotors re-wired in South Africa – this is major work.

Kariba has five units on line with the sixth due back on the grid in mid-May after routine, but critical, maintenance ahead of winter.

The Hwange and Kariba expansion plans remain on program at this time. The tenders are out and close in June. this will be followed by 2 three month periods for tender review and finalisation of funding/award. Thereafter construction will take between three to four years (2016-17).

R. Maasdorp
Chairman ZPC

——

Update from the ZPC Chairman – 10pm 29 April:

Please be advised that the 4 units at Hwange Power Station are now back on the grid. I take this opportunity to thank those, at the station,  who worked extremely long hours to get these units operational. In addition I thank ZETDC technical support staff for the rapid response to this situation.

When it comes to the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) I reckon the gauge above would, and should be permanently in the red. How’s this: after a month of some of the worst power cuts we’ve ever had, ZESA estimates my bill. Do they estimate it down because they’ve provided F’All power? No, they estimate it UP. Dim wits that they are. And to add insult to injury my ZESA bill arrives in the post on the 17th April with the last date for payment cited as 9th April. There might be a crisis in power supply in Zimbabwe but there’s also a crisis in the management of ZESA.

Wake at first light with much scratching and scrabbling in the ceiling above our bed
(there has been a lot of ceiling and roof bouncing activity in the last few days)
is it rats – or is it?
is it … the bushbabies coming home?
(they moved out of Mel’s ceiling some weeks ago as it has become a nesting site for the wood hoopoes)
waking with a feeling of hopeful gratitude

AND

There is ZESA! (Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority)
–it has been in even more limited supply lately
bills to Mozambique not paid/ bills of officials not paid/whatever
I scurry outside to the washing machine
(so placed to access 3 different water supplies)
but all will be well
there is ZESA – and that runs the community borehole
(the Municipality water is still leaking into the vlei – we haven’t had that for months)

but no

for some other reason the borehole pump is not working
(water supply 1 and 2 not available!)

I scurry through the morning  ferns to switch on the Green Tank
(our backup supply – access 3)
all is well

Boil pot of tea with a great plan
the satellite supplying our daily dose of BBC delivered through the battery radio
seems to have dropped out of the sky in the last few days
but …
this morning there is ZESA – which means that the internet will be working
grab my laptop
fumble around in growing light to set up the World Radio news
aah – the familiar well-modulated, dulcet tones of BBC filter through the bedroom
with all the latest disasters, killings, outrage
pour cups of tea and settle into bed

but no
it is streaming and buffering and b****ing around and we catch an occasional word or two

ahh well, think about today

- have to pick up a tire being repaired at the garage (pot-hole puncture)
- Tony’s car dropped a something from the steering into something else in the engine
that also needs repairing
- then there is the invitation from yet another funder to apply for funding for they are very interested in what we do
just fill in the form and read the online 360 page – or alternatively a more detailed 1000 page – explanation
juggling
will this be another exercise in futility?
to get a one liner 3 weeks late inviting you to apply again next time as you didn’t make it this time

check the washing machine
the water pressure is so low it didn’t even wash the soap into bowl
its rinsed anyway

The light in the kitchen dims and wavers
perhaps the ZESA supply is so low that it merely switches things on
just doesn’t get them to work?

Its 9.30am
cloudy day
cold wind
at the traffic light my friend the newspaper vendor rushes to the car window
eyes on stalks
‘look at the headlines Gogo’ he instructs
President and Prime Minister agree to elections in June
the ugly specter of renewed violence floats in a dark cloud above our heads

April 3rd 2012
riding the waves

The Herald recently reported that “bigwigs” aren’t paying their electricity bills. Below is a response from a Kubatana subscriber … a good illustration of the disgust many ordinary Zimbabweans feel toward politicians in this country ….

In light of the revelations by the Minister of Energy and Power Development that quite a number of top government officials and Ministers owe ZESA amounts not less than US$10 000 in unpaid bills, it is saddening to note that the same people sit and discuss how underperforming the institution is yet they are the main cause of our worries. We have suffered a lot as a result of load shedding and being disconnected yet the ‘haves’ ie the rich continue to evade paying their bills. For how long shall the ‘have not’ ie the poor continue to subsidise the rich in the name of the agricultural revolution? It is a fact that when they applied for land they indicated they had the financial muscle to carry out farming activities, what has happened now? An investment in a mini hydro power worth US$100 000 in the Himalaya area in Manicaland has benefited more than 200 household’s with each household paying not more than US$5 per month in electricity bills. If the monies owed to ZESA were to be invested in such initiatives how many households would benefit and how much in savings would be raised for the betterment of the common person on the street. It is so sad to be urinated on whilst we are alive.
- Percy, Harare