For anyone expecting some sort of load shedding relief think again. The power challenges we are facing right now aren’t going away anytime soon (no surprise there). ZESA came out and said that the situation is unfortunately going to get worse.
In an article published in yesterday’s Sunday Mail, ZESA’s spokesman Fullard Gwasira attributed this to a fault at Hwange Power Station. According to Gwasira, because of the restoration to this faulty generator ZESA can’t stick to its load shedding schedule.
“In the interest of load shedding, consumers may not have power for longer periods than in the stipulated schedule.”
This means that the current load shedding schedule won’t do you much good. It also dismisses the assurances that the power supply entity had made less than two weeks ago regarding these powercuts and the work that was being carried out to improve the situation within three weeks.
Most Zimbabweans hardly take any of these promises to restore services to normalcy seriously anymore. If you are operating any business that relies on power extensively the best thing is to just make solid arrangements for alternatives to ZESA.
While the more popular alternatives include generators and inverters, for startups bootstrapping their way through an already brutal entrepreneurial climate, the funds for such an investment might not be available.
If you are in this situation, now could be the time to explore options like working out of an Internet cafe (yes they still exist), any public place (restaurant/cafe) with a sympathetic staff (just think of the wall-huggers in every food court) or working from the closest tech hub.
Without any end in sight for these electricity supply woes what arrangements are you making for power?
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8 comments
a few years back when they still had a billing system the whole load shedding thing would have made a lot of sense since most consumers were not paying their bills, but now seeing that consumers are on a pre-paid tip it doesnt make sense to pay for a service that is hardly available. The utility companies in zim are hit with a lot of corruption, if ZEDTC cant handle it they should look for a private investor to invest and make sure that every home has a prepaid meter and everyone is paying for what they are using, electricity in this day and age is a necessity just like water but we get the city fathers diverting the funds for their own personal gains.
Contrary to popular belief, most homes don’t have prepaid meters yet, particularly in high density areas. We also have a lot of public entities that consume electricity but can’t pay for it (think hospitals and government Depts) . So to answer your question, prepaid meters have not made the problem go away, not yet
Please furnish us with the list of hidh density suburbs 😉
pre-pay meters are actually better for the customer in this case because if theres no power theres no usage to meter and charge for so you don’t actually pay when theres no power!
I find it absurd that ZESA was quick to put prepaid metres at houses that already had the old version of meters why I i find it stupid is the fact that where I stay in Marondera there are those houses that are billed a fixed rate popularly known as 7and half. Well it doesnt need to employ any special science to not that these people who are billed with a fixed rate should have been the first ones to be put on prepaid meters. Now they have put already metered customers on prepaid which means those with fixed billing are stil wasting power. ZESA please wake up hazvidi hope izvi we are now in the 21rst century
Ndaenda kubasa no zesa,kubhawa no zesa beer rikupisa,kuchechi no zesa microphone and fan dheng,Kumba no zesa,sadza dheng..arghhh hameno kuChipatara
With cash-strapped economy, government need to talk to Eskom to avoid power cuts but yeneta Eskom as they always chase up non-payment.
When water stopped flowing in 2006 – we complained, but after a few weeks it became “normal” that there was no water. So now we hardly mention it.
Get ready for the new “normal” power suppliy !!
ZIMABABWE means house of stone – and as a country ? Back to the stone age.
Aluta continua 🙂