'Mnangagwa to blame for Zimbabwe's energy crisis'

LEADER of opposition political party, New Innovative Mordernisation Front (NIMF), Peter Munyanduri has predicted shortages of electricity in the country will persist as long as the Energy Ministry is occupied by an "unqualified and incompetent" minister.

Soda Zhemu is the Energy Minister and Munyanduri's utterances follow a series of daily rolling power blackouts being experienced by energy users across the country.

The energy crisis has also seen erratic supplies of petrol, diesel and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) which, oftentimes, have pushed the prices of products out of the reach of ordinary consumers.

Munyanduri, a senior planning engineer at the power utility, Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA), told NewZimbabwe.com that President Emmerson Mnangagwa should solely take the blame for the incessant power cuts after he appointed non-technocrats to head the critical ministry.

He says Zhemu, a holder of a business degree, was not qualified to lead the portfolio, just as his predecessor Fortune Chasi, who is a lawyer.

Zhemu replaced Chasi as Energy Minister last year.

"The Minister (of Energy) must be an electrical engineer. That someone with a qualification in law becomes a Minister of Energy is one cause of electricity outages," said Munyanduri.

"For there to be electricity adequacy, there has to be no corruption in the appointment. To be superior and less educated will lead to a minister failing on his mandate. Corruption is causing energy deficits in the country."

Asked what panacea was there to solve the electricity crisis, the losing 2018 presidential candidate said investment in renewable energy was the solution to the challenges bedevilling the sector.

"We should go green by adopting renewable energy like solar, wind and hydro and do away with thermal power stations that use coal. We need to modernise our energy sector by promoting independent power producers (IPPs) and giving them cash incentives for supplies of excess energy to the national grid.

"There should also be a promotion of ‘rooftop power solutions' which is whereby all buildings have roofs made of solar panels, replacing zinc, aluminum, asbestos and tiles.

"In other countries, solar panels are standard roofing materials. So, if every house in Zimbabwe has solar panels as roofs, there will be electricity adequacy in the country. The government should put in place policies and programmes to make it easy for innovators and energy experts within ZESA to establish private companies that can generate power for sale to the national power utility company," he added.

Munyanduri, recently showered praises to Mnangagwa for extending an olive branch to opposition political formations so they could participate in nation building through the Political Actors Dialogue (POLAD), where opposition leaders can advise his government.

This is after he and other POLAD members received from Mnangagwa government bought vehicles.