The Sunday News
Rutendo Nyeve, Sunday News Reporter
THE suspension of the rural electrification programme two years ago that added to the creation of a 350 000-household backlog had nothing to do with the country’s then low power generation capacity but was prompted by lack of funds, a cabinet minister has clarified.
The programme is however, set to commence at the back of a US$800 million loan to be secured from Rwanda and will see 350 000 households from across the country being connected to the national grid. The loan facility is a result of the bi-lateral relations between Zimbabwe and Rwanda which culminated in a partnership between Zesa and the Rwanda Energy Group that will see Rwanda providing engineers and finance while Zesa will procure the equipment as well as recruit most of the personnel.
Addressing journalists in Bulawayo recently, the Minister of Energy and Power Development Soda Zhemu said the project had not been stalled by power generation capacities but unavailability of funds.
Zesa
“As a country we have a backlog of 350 000 households that are yet to be connected to the national grid. The issue has not been about the power generation capacity but unavailability of funding to do this project. We might be witnessing improved power generation particularly through the coming in of Unit 7 and 8, increased power generation at Kariba power station but the backlog that we have will be connected once funding is made available,” said Minister Zhemu.
He said Zesa holdings was in the process of acquiring a loan from Rwanda which will facilitate the connection of the households.
“You might be aware that Zesa is in the process of obtaining a loan from Rwanda which will fund the connection of these houses,” said Minister Zhemu.
He added that Government was coming up with policies to regulate contributions made by individuals towards purchasing of equipment and resources.
“We are aware that individuals were organising themselves and volunteering to purchase what we call customer supplied material. As Government we have requested the power utility to help in coming up with a policy that will regulate these contributions in order to achieve transparency,” said Minister Zhemu.
He said the power utility will pay customers who would have contributed towards the purchasing of materials through electricity units. The power utility is already implementing that facility particularly to those customers who would have purchased material that would have been vandalised or stolen.
The Zimbabwe Electricity and Distribution Company (ZETDC) has a customer base of 850 000 clients. Of these, 745 000 are on prepaid meters and the remainder are on post-payment, with 350 000 that are not yet connected.
Apart from the Zesa — Rwanda Energy Group partnership and the Unit 7 and 8 expansion projects, the power utility is pursuing various strategies to build capacity for delivery of energy to meet national demand. Minister Zhemu said while he could not comment on the update of a bid as it can go either side, the country was also at the bidding stage where Mozambique has invited different countries to submit bids for the development of the Patanguwa Project. Zesa expects to get 1 000 megawatts from that project. — @nyeve14
