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Thupeyo Muleya Beitbridge Bureau
The shortage of foreign currency is affecting the Zimbabwe Electricity and Distribution Company’s (ZETDC) capacity and ability to upgrade its ageing equipment and attending to faults in most areas, an official has said.

The parastatal’s spokesperson Mr Fullard Gwasira said a lot of underground cables had outlived their design lifespan and were in need of urgent upgrading.

He said in some cases they were handicapped in terms of repairing transmitters or procuring consumables.

Of late there had been an outcry from consumers, especially in Beitbridge, who were accusing ZEDTC of wanton power cuts during the rainy season and slow response to faults. Businesses operating in the eastern part of the border town and irrigation farmers were the worst affected.

“It’s true we have other areas where there are fault or our ability is strained due to a number of challenges,” said Mr Gwasira. “You will note that most of our underground cables were installed several years ago and have outlived their design lifespans and others continue to break.

“These have to be joined and during the rainy season they become a problem, we either experience short circuits at these joins due to water logging resulting in power blackouts. However, we are working on repairing and upgrading some of the equipment though resources are limited.”

Mr Gwasira said the parastatal was also facing challenges in raising working capital. He said they were working on a number of strategies to ensure that ageing equipment was replaced and upgraded to reduce intermittent faults and power cuts.

Mr Gwasira said in some cases, short circuits or power cuts were a result of overloading on the transmitters and related equipment.

“You will also realise that the number of households or properties being connected to our power supply equipment is increasing in line with the population growth,” he said.

“However, the demand is over the supplying capacity of our equipment. We need to redesign and construct more transmitting points and also procure consumables to services and repair the existing equipment. For all this to happen we need adequate funds. At the moment we have to seek the forex through Treasury and it’s cumbersome. In addition, let me emphasise that we don’t neglect our clients, our teams are busy on the ground attending to faults as and when they arise.”

Beitbridge West parliamentarian Cde Ruth Maboyi said recently that a two months power blackout was affecting key services in her constituency. She said clinics, business centres, irrigation schemes and households were the hardest hit.