Mines, industries: Zesa’s biggest debtors

zesalogo

Lovemore Zigara, Midlands Correspondent
CONSUMER debt to Zesa continues to soar in the southern region with latest figures indicating that the power utility is owed $276.6 million by its clients as at December 31, 2015.

The figure rose by about 40 percent from $198.6 million, which was owed to the power utility in the region over the same period in 2014.

Zesa southern region covers the Midlands, parts of Matabeleland North and parts of Mashonaland East provinces.

The debt is part of the over $1 billion owed to the parastatal by users of electricity.

Zesa southern region general manager, King Dube told Chronicle Business that mining and industrial consumers were the biggest debtors owing a combined $215 million.

He said the mining and manufacturing industry’s debt represented a 78 percent of the total debt.

“ZETDC southern region is owed $276.6 million by its clients who comprise mining and industrial companies. They owe $215 million and, commercial customers owe $38 million while domestic consumers owe $9 million. Farmers’ debts stand at $6.9 million and that of state institutions is around $3.3 million,” said Dube.

“We’ll continue to engage these mining industrial clients so that they pay their bills, we know that they’re facing various challenges but they’ve to pay.”

Among the biggest debtors is Sable Chemicals, which is believed to owe up to $150 million.

Other debtors include Zimasco and small-scale mining companies.

Domestic consumers’ debt has decreased from $11 million in 2014 to $9 million a development, which has been attributed to the installation of prepaid meters in homes.

Dube said prepaid meter installations stood at 96 percent of total customers.

He said Zesa had also ordered new meters with anti-tampering features in light of reports that some customers were tampering with the gadgets.

“As of 31 January 2016 installations stood at 75,647 representing 96 percent of our total customers. 95 percent of meters installed in the region have anti-tampering features, which automatically disconnects power to the customer if the meter connections are tampered with.

This means the customer has to come forth and upon reaching premises the indication will show that something was done,” added Dube.

The debt owed to Zesa comes at a time when the company is planning to increase its tariff to $0,14 per kilowatt hour from $0,09 per kilowatt hour.

The Ministry of Energy and Power Development has backed the move saying this will enable the power utility to embark on power generation projects.

The proposal has, however, caught the ire of the business community and household consumers who view the move as a unilateral ploy to burden them.

Zimbabwe is producing an average of 1,000MW of electricity against a daily demand of about 2,000MW.

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