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Hwange Thermal Power Station

The implementation of the $1,5 billion Hwange Thermal Power Station expansion project in Matabeleland North is expected to start soon. The China Exim Bank has released the initial $200 million to kick-start the project which involves the expansion of units 7 and 8 to add 600 megawatts of electricity into the national grid.

The project, being undertaken by Chinese firm Sino-Hydro, is one of the many infrastructural projects to be funded by the Chinese government following the successful visit to China by President Emmerson Mnangagwa in April.

On Tuesday key stakeholders comprising the Zimbabwe Power Company (ZPC) officials, Sino-Hydro representatives, Ministry of Energy and Power Development officials and officials from Hatch, the engineering company carrying out feasibility work met in Victoria Falls to discuss details regarding the implementation of the project.

President Mnangagwa is expected to preside over the project’s groundbreaking ceremony on Wednesday next week. The implementation of the project will once again shame the prophets of doom who have dismissed the mega deals signed between the Zimbabwean and the Chinese government following Cde Mnangagwa’s visit to China.

Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed to avail funding for the various infrastructural projects but the country’s enemies have been peddling falsehoods that China would never release such funding. Officials from China’s National Reform and Development Commission are already in the country training locals in the requisite skills to implement the mega deals.

The team is led by Madam Song Gongmei, who is the deputy Director General of the International Centre of the National Reform and Development Commission.  The National Reform and Development Commission is a Chinese think-tank responsible for the dynamic and far reaching reforms that happened in China during the past 40 years.

President Mnangagwa and his high powered delegation secured a number of deals that are set to propel Zimbabwe’s economic turnaround when they visited China. The country’s enemies including the private media instead of focusing on the many positives of Cde Mnangagwa’s trip were however concentrating on trivia.

Today these prophets of doom are left with egg on their faces as the nation starts implementing yet another electricity generation expansion project after the completion of the $533m Kariba South Extension Project that added 300 megawatts into the national grid. The new dispensation led by President

Mnangagwa has on many fora said that its thrust now is on turning around the country’s economy as opposed to just politicking.

The nation is already enjoying the benefits of the Government’s policy thrust and therefore the challenge to Zimbabweans is to play their part in ensuring that we bequeath to future generations, a prosperous Zimbabwe.