Zesa customers must pay for what they have consumed - Mangoma

The Minister of Energy and Power Development, Elton Mangoma said there is a need for electricity consumers to pay for what they have consumed so that Zesa has capacity to increase electricity availability to all consumers.

Mangoma said it is very disheartening to note that there are still customers who have not paid at all since the advent of dollarisation in 2009, but yet these people still expect to benefit from uninterrupted power supplies, part of which is imported from the region.

"This culture of non payment of bills will not be allowed to continue," said Mangoma who took the opportunity to thank and applaud those customers paying their bills.

Zesa has intensified efforts to collect outstanding bills which the Minister said is critical for sustaining operations i.e. carrying out maintenance, and supporting the importation of electricity. There are prospects for increasing imports from new stations being developed in the region.

Zesa is currently in discussions with the concerned developers and has to position itself as a credit worthy off taker to be able to tap from these sources.

"We have to come out of the vicious circle where because bills are not paid, supply reliability is compromised, and maintenance cannot be carried out and imports cannot be paid for. Payment of bills is very important as we take measures to build new power stations. We cannot raise funds to build new power stations when the current of non payment prevails," added the minister.

Zesa has availed to customers a facility to propose workable plans, and regrettably some customers have chosen either to ignore this or not to honour their payment plans, leaving Zesa with no option except to withdraw supplies.

The Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company (ZETDC) has intensified credit control to all defaulting customers so as to encourage them to settle their outstanding amounts.

Mangoma said it is important to note that disconnection of electricity supplies should always be undertaken as a last resort action after non-payment of bills and failure to proffer credible payment plans.

ALL CUSTOMERS currently in arrears run the risk of disconnections.  ZETDC is owed over US$450 million by customers, revenue that could be used to pay for electricity imports, purchasing of spares for infrastructural maintenance, fund for coal deliveries, among other areas for the good of the nation. However, disconnections in future will be done after providing a disconnection notice for a period of at least five days.

Mangona said iIt has come to his attention that some of the bills are not accurate and in some cases fraudulent. He said he has instructed Zesa to attend to all queries that the customers have so that they are satisfied with the accuracy of their bills. The current bills do not include pre-dollarisation consumption. Those not clear should have their bills verified.