Harare, ZETDC headed for clash over streetlights

The City of Harare is holding talks with the Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company (ZETDC) following rising cases of streetlights, tower lights and traffic signals going dark when prepaid meters run out of power.

The prepaid metering programme, rolled out by ZETDC in June this year in cities such as Bulawayo and Chitungwiza, was introduced to improve efficiency, curb electricity losses and ensure councils prepay for energy consumption.

However, Harare mayor Jacob Mafume warned on Monday that while the policy appeared sound on paper, in practice it had what he described as a "cobra effect" - creating unintended and harmful consequences for residents.

"We are also discussing with ZETDC. There seems to have been a prepaid electricity system gone wild. It looks very good on paper to say that you have put a prepaid meter on a tower light, on a traffic light or on a streetlight. But it is a policy which has what we call a cobra effect. It is disastrous for the public. It increases crime and can cause accidents when these things are not juiced up properly in time," Mafume told journalists during the city's strategic planning meeting.

Drawing an analogy, he likened the situation to India's infamous "cobra effect," where a policy to pay residents for capturing cobras backfired as people began breeding snakes for profit. "Now the tower lights go off when the juice ends, there's crime, an accident can occur if the meter ends abruptly in the middle of the night. This is just a bad policy," Mafume said.

He urged authorities to consider the broader public safety implications of policies, not just their administrative or financial appeal. "We should have a public policy element in terms of how we implement some of the policies that look good on paper, but have disastrous consequences on the ground," he added.

Mafume also acknowledged that the city has struggled for more than a decade to achieve its key urban development goals, including reliable water supply, improved transport systems, decongested roads, job creation and access to electricity. He stressed the importance of aligning Harare's strategy with the government's National Development Strategy 1 (NDS1) and the Vision 2030 plan.

"We still have a long way to go in terms of the basic necessities that make living in a city easy. One of the key issues of consulting is how do we unlock this lockdown and synchronise our vision with the government's planning process," Mafume said.

The mayor further noted that the city was working to restore order and address governance gaps by filling acting positions that have remained unresolved for years.

"We need to accelerate filling of those positions. There are people in those posts, they have been there for quite some time and working, but one needs to have the confidence of having been confirmed," he said.

The engagement with ZETDC is expected to continue as council seeks a balance between energy efficiency and public safety in the city's power supply strategy.