Zimpapers Logo

Mr Gwasira

Abel Zhakata Mutare Bureau
parts of Mutare and surrounding areas have been plunged into darkness as ZESA battles to contain increasing copper cable and transformer oil theft cases that have paralysed the transmission of electricity to households.

Thieves last week pounced at a primary school just outside Mutare and vandalised a transformer worth $12 000 that services more than 200 customers.

ZESA Holdings spokesperson, Mr Fullard Gwasira, said the theft cases were on the increase and costing the power utility millions of dollars in repairs and replacements.

Affected customers who are spending more than 14 hours a day without power since last Friday have since registered their disgruntlement on social media, attacking the power utility for failing to quickly rectify the blackout and bring them back online.

Mr Gwasira said the affected households would have to be patient as ZESA was battling to access foreign currency to purchase electricity transmission components.

“The rate of vandalism has grown exponentially, paralysing electricity transmission. It costs about $12 000 to replace a damaged transformer like the one that was tampered with at Matsongorere Primary School. It is a worrying trend because more than 200 customers are now in total darkness because of the work of thieves,” he said.

“All this drags operations backwards because instead of ZESA connecting new customers to the grid, some of the resources are used to do these repairs.”

Mr Gwasira said a total of 4 000 transformers which were vandalised countrywide need to be replaced at a cost of about $5 million.

“The ensuing foreign currency bottlenecks are a big challenge because we don’t have enough to import the required spares.

“Our mandate is to provide electricity, but all these factors pull us back. Apart from this vandalism which must be stopped immediately, ZESA is also being owed more than a billion dollars by customers who are failing to pay up.

“At the end of the day we are hamstrung to effectively carry out our mandate and provide electricity countrywide,” he said.