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Leonard Ncube, Victoria Falls Reporter

THE Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company (ZETDC) has said it is losing more than US$20 million per year due to vandalism and theft of electricity infrastructure.

The power utility has equated damage to its infrastructure to economic sabotage as such criminal activities affect economic recovery, stabilisation and growth which are critical to attain Vision 2030 through the National Development Strategy 1.

ZETDC commercial services manager Engineer Ralph Katsande said more than 23 000 electricity customers are cut off after vandalism of their connections. 

“Theft and vandalism of electrical infrastructure has reached alarming rates. Each morning our network is vandalised and there are faults. There are slightly over 23 000 customers who are off supply for long periods because of vandalism and we are losing a lot of revenue.

“We are losing US$4 million per year in equipment damage and in revenue we are losing about US$1,6 million per month while customers themselves are inconvenienced. So instead of growing our network, we are busy trying to restore stolen infrastructure,” said Eng Katsande.

He was speaking to journalists in Victoria Falls during a visit to the city by ZETDC’s top management as part of the power utility’s activities for the customer service week which started on Monday and ends today.

He said vandalism of electricity infrastructure is causing accidents and deaths and has become the biggest source of faults on the power network.

Eng Katsande said vandalism in one area affects the whole nation and even region as the national grid has interconnectors with neighbouring countries.

Thieves target power infrastructure for various reasons with some wanting copper wires while others bring down power lines just to access steel to make axles for their scotch carts and other uses.

“So theft and vandalism are drawing back economic recovery because for every unit of energy that is not saved because of faults due to vandalism the economy loses money and is harmed.

“For every unit of energy that is not saved because of vandalism we lose around US$2,70 worth of GDP and when you aggregate, we can knock off US$1 to US$2 billion of GDP which is why vandalism should be treated as economic sabotage,” said Eng Katsande.

ZETDC has come up with a number of measures to address the situation, among them replacing copper cables, that are targeted by thieves, with aluminium ones and the programme is ongoing.

The company has also engaged Parliament pushing for deterrent convictions and this has gotten the nod for sentences for tampering with electricity infrastructure to be raised from 10 years to 30 years.

Cabinet has since approved the Electricity Amendment Bill, which has deterrent measures for would-be offenders with removal of the option of a fine, opting for stiffer and mandatory sentences.

In 2021, Zesa recorded 1 237 cases of theft and vandalism resulting in huge losses of revenue, which could have been used for development.

Eng Katsande said vandalism is a worrying trend and thieves are becoming sophisticated.

“Despite the measures taken to curb that menace, we are still not winning that war because the network which we are trying to restore is being destroyed by organised gangs who are stealing cables, conductors, and transformers and leaving many customers without power supply,” said Eng Katsande. 

He said ZETDC is working with police, the National Railways of Zimbabwe and TelOne who are equally affected and appealed to all stakeholders including ordinary citizens, to play a role.