Robbers leave residents in the dark after vandalising system in Marlborough

Harare west legislator Jessie Fungayi Majome has said transformer oil thieves have not only vandalised transformers in the suburb, but have also robbed residents of their prepaid electricity.

"In Parliament the Minister of Energy and Power Development Hon. Dr. Undege skirted around my question why ZESA had published an advert congratulating the ZANU PF party for successfully holding its people's conference," she said.
 
"The Minister was hiding behind a finger trying to justify why ZESA - a state enterprise unconstitutionally congratulated a political party, breaching Section 194 of the Constitution - Principles of Public Administration and Leadership. His excuse for publishing the advert, which cost $890 (how many cages that secure transformers can be made with that?) was that the State President as leader for ZANU PF secured Chinese funding from his Communist Party comrades for the Kariba and Hwange expansion projects. That was his reply to my sub question of what the benefit is to electricity consumers."

She said Undenge without any shame said that ZESA supports anyone who assumes the role of President and that ZESA was not the only State enterprise that congratulated the State President.

"Because of the rampant recent vandalism of transformers in Marlborough, Westgate and Mabelreign I decided to take advantage of the Minister's presence in Parliament to go and sit next to him. I took him to task on why ZESA and the police don't detect and stop transformer oil theft," she said.

"I advised to Minister to stop charging urban residents the Rural Electrification Fund, instead reinvest that money in a) insurance for theft/vandalism so it doesn't keep affected consumers in the dark and or b) the physical security of transformers, alarm systems the works. I did this because it's unfair for us consumers to meet the costs of vandalism especially when we pay ZESA in advance. I've been planning on moving a motion on this and the Marlborough power cut disaster has just spurred me on some more especially since the Minister seemed more concerned about rural consumers as he said something about ZESA working on some remote vandalism alert system for rural electricity infrastructure."

She said on the Marlborough power cut front, she contacted ZESA Harare North Region to find out what is happening and how soon Marlburians will be reconnected.

"I was only told that transformers had gone for repairs but was not given a date on when lights will be back on. I urge you residents to be vigilant on vandals, be proactive AND report all faults to the ZESA 24hr hot line 04706453, or call 04310378/305961 or visit the ZESA depot at Mabelreign Shops. Request for a fault number to track progress of report," she said.