News / National
Khaya Moyo reads Zesa executives the riot act
09 Jun 2018 at 15:48hrs | Views
THE Minister of Energy and Power Development, Simon Khaya Moyo, has vowed to fire without sympathy all Zesa Holdings' officials involved in corrupt dealings and blamed illicit shenanigans for the "catastrophic" losses of more than $100 million recorded by the power utility.
Addressing the Zesa Holdings 12th Annual General Meeting in Harare yesterday, Khaya Moyo, said despite positives in the sector, Zesa operations were overshadowed by bad publicity, with its image being tarnished by allegations of corrupt tendencies in selection and awarding of tenders.
"Consumers are complaining about your poor responsiveness to faults. Mr Chairman, there are bad apples within the group who should be flushed out.
People are being illegally connected to the grid by Zesa employees working in cahoots with your former staff. Your prepaid meters are being by-passed, and yes you are losing revenue because of these shenanigans," he said.
"Our balance sheet is catastrophic and we are insolvent right now. Surely a loss of $100 million is bad news. We should all arrest this."
Khaya Moyo said while he appreciated the external challenges facing Zesa, some problems in the parastatal were attributable to internal inefficiencies.
"President Mnangagwa is preaching the gospel of zero tolerance to corruption and we should all play our part. I have no sympathy for those who are involved in corrupt activities, 'send them home'. I repeat 'fire them.'"
"There should be no sacred cows. This should apply right across from executives to the general worker. We should all adopt a mantra of 'no to corruption in our group'," he emphasised.
Khaya Moyo challenged Zesa to devise strategies of redeeming the more than $1 billion owed by its clients. He demanded a speedy rollout of prepaid meters and encouraged consumers across the board to pay their bills to ensure an efficient service. The minister also directed Zesa to up its game in implementing outstanding projects by taking advantage of the positive investor sentiment under the new dispensation.
"Investors are flocking into the country searching for investment opportunities. Take advantage of this, negotiate with them good terms and implement the projects using PPPs," he said.
Despite the economic challenges, Khaya Moyo said, Zesa managed to tame load shedding with further supply improvement following the commissioning of the 300MW Kariba South Extension project early this year.
He reaffirmed Government's commitment to help Zesa and other state agencies to liquidate their debts through issuance of Treasury Bills.
Using these, Zesa has been able to meet some of its obligations especially payment for power imports.
In the long run, the minister said power imports were not sustainable given the acute foreign currency shortages in the economy.
He assured the gathering that Government was doing all it could to stabilise fuel supplies.
The situation has prompted the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe to increase weekly forex allocations to ensure adequate supplies, putting a further strain on reserves.
As such, Khaya Moyo urged Zesa to optimise internal generation and import when necessary.
He grilled top executives over delayed maintenance at one of the units at the Hwange Power Station. The unit was due to be operational by May but is now scheduled to come online in August, said the minister.
Khaya Moyo said Zesa workers have no reason to be involved in corruption as they were well paid and directed them to apply themselves fully to work.
He castigated some few "misguided" union leaders who were influencing Zesa workers towards a militant attitude towards Government.
"Stop this militant approach and we will have an ear for you. Leave politics to us, after all this is not a clean game," said Khaya Moyo.
Addressing the Zesa Holdings 12th Annual General Meeting in Harare yesterday, Khaya Moyo, said despite positives in the sector, Zesa operations were overshadowed by bad publicity, with its image being tarnished by allegations of corrupt tendencies in selection and awarding of tenders.
"Consumers are complaining about your poor responsiveness to faults. Mr Chairman, there are bad apples within the group who should be flushed out.
People are being illegally connected to the grid by Zesa employees working in cahoots with your former staff. Your prepaid meters are being by-passed, and yes you are losing revenue because of these shenanigans," he said.
"Our balance sheet is catastrophic and we are insolvent right now. Surely a loss of $100 million is bad news. We should all arrest this."
Khaya Moyo said while he appreciated the external challenges facing Zesa, some problems in the parastatal were attributable to internal inefficiencies.
"President Mnangagwa is preaching the gospel of zero tolerance to corruption and we should all play our part. I have no sympathy for those who are involved in corrupt activities, 'send them home'. I repeat 'fire them.'"
"There should be no sacred cows. This should apply right across from executives to the general worker. We should all adopt a mantra of 'no to corruption in our group'," he emphasised.
Khaya Moyo challenged Zesa to devise strategies of redeeming the more than $1 billion owed by its clients. He demanded a speedy rollout of prepaid meters and encouraged consumers across the board to pay their bills to ensure an efficient service. The minister also directed Zesa to up its game in implementing outstanding projects by taking advantage of the positive investor sentiment under the new dispensation.
"Investors are flocking into the country searching for investment opportunities. Take advantage of this, negotiate with them good terms and implement the projects using PPPs," he said.
Despite the economic challenges, Khaya Moyo said, Zesa managed to tame load shedding with further supply improvement following the commissioning of the 300MW Kariba South Extension project early this year.
He reaffirmed Government's commitment to help Zesa and other state agencies to liquidate their debts through issuance of Treasury Bills.
Using these, Zesa has been able to meet some of its obligations especially payment for power imports.
In the long run, the minister said power imports were not sustainable given the acute foreign currency shortages in the economy.
He assured the gathering that Government was doing all it could to stabilise fuel supplies.
The situation has prompted the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe to increase weekly forex allocations to ensure adequate supplies, putting a further strain on reserves.
As such, Khaya Moyo urged Zesa to optimise internal generation and import when necessary.
He grilled top executives over delayed maintenance at one of the units at the Hwange Power Station. The unit was due to be operational by May but is now scheduled to come online in August, said the minister.
Khaya Moyo said Zesa workers have no reason to be involved in corruption as they were well paid and directed them to apply themselves fully to work.
He castigated some few "misguided" union leaders who were influencing Zesa workers towards a militant attitude towards Government.
"Stop this militant approach and we will have an ear for you. Leave politics to us, after all this is not a clean game," said Khaya Moyo.
Source - chronicle
