ZESA owed over $500M in unpaid electricity bills

Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) Holdings has said it is owed more than US$537 million in unpaid electricity bills by domestic, industrial, mining and agricultural consumers as at the end of November.

Spokesperson Shepherd Mandizvidza said the power utility was failing to pay for electricity imports to supplement local generation because of the amount owed.

He said they were also failing to pay for coal for thermal power stations, pay for water for Kariba Hydro Power Station and procure spares for transmission and distribution infrastructure maintenance.

"Electricity is a key driver of the socio-economic spectrum and the failure by some customers to heed the call to settle their electricity bills implies that there would be depressed generation culminating in load shedding as the power utility would not be adequately resourced to meet demand," said Mandizvidza.

"Zesa Holdings is determined to further revive the economy through adequate supplies of electricity and it urges customers to meet their side of the bargain by settling the bills."

ZETDC, a subsidiary of Zesa dealing with the distribution of electricity, is encouraging customers who are facing challenges to settle their bills to engage it for payment plans before disconnections are done.

Mandizvidza said many customers were not coming forward to discuss the payment plans.

"Some customers still remain adamant and the power utility would have no choice but to disconnect supplies to encourage them to pay their bills," he said. "To that effect, customers are urged to co-operate with personnel of ZETDC as they approach their premises to discharge their mandate."

Mandizvidza said Zesa Holdings had plans to install smart prepaid meters to ensure that customers paid for their consumption of electricity.

He said they were awaiting the finalisation of relevant formalities by the State Procurement Board (SPB) to engage a service provider of smart prepaid meters.

"ZETDC would be in a position to recover the revenue that is locked with customers as the technology has in-built mechanism to dedicate some units towards customer debt, while at the same time allowing them to survive until the bills are cleared," said Mandizvidza.

"ZETDC is not going to write off the bills and it is only logical that customers heed the call to clear their debt now."

Mandizvidza said the power utility successfully undertook an exercise to clean its billing system and the bills that were being generated were accurate.

Zesa has come under fire from customers for its billing system which they say is in shambles.