Zesa engages Mugabe over bills

Zesa Holdings has reportedly engaged President Mugabe's office over the proposed scrapping of electricity bills, arguing the move would be disastrous.

Sources said yesterday that the utility's top brass had held a closed door meeting recently and agreed to engage the President's Office over the issue of scrapping bills.

The meeting, according to one source, had come up with a position paper on the matter, which paper had been submitted to the President's Office.

Yesterday, the senior official said: "We prepared a paper that we sent to the President's Office raising those issues. Our argument is that the power utility cannot slash bills because it has got clients that have been ring-fenced and some of its customers make advance payments which leaves the utility at a precarious position as to how it will treat those customers."

There have been suggestions from various quarters, including top government officials, that Zesa writes off customer debts as has happened with water and other utility bills.

The Zesa management meeting concluded that it would be disastrous to scrap bills, hence the need to engage the President's Office.

Zesa spokesperson Fullard Gwasira, however, denied the power utility had approached the President's Office. He said: "That assertion is baseless and incorrect. Zesa has in place very effective ways of communicating with our customers. I cannot comment any further on this issue at the moment."

It could not be ascertained yesterday whether the President's Office had received the letter.

Presidential spokesperson George Charamba said: "I am not aware of that. Zesa can't do that since there is no minister. Why can't you wait for President Mugabe to announce a Cabinet?"