Investment on electricity generation most welcome

For more than a decade now, Zimbabwe has been experiencing short supply of electricity in both domestic and industrial consumption thereby hindering essential production of goods and services in the country. Zimbabweans had been grappling with this shortage of electricity for a long time and they are now losing hope on whether there would be any solution to the shortage of electricity coming in the near future.

The shortage of electricity has not been doing any good to the country and most productive services sectors meant for the betterment of the country have been greatly affected leading to some closures of companies. Workers have been on the receiving end as the closure of companies meant unemployment in the country rises. So the unemployment rate caused by the shortage of electricity in the country is causing the suffering of many families.

As such, some people as a measure to counter the shortage of electricity, have resorted to using solar energy and generators as a means to get electricity when the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) is having its load shading exercises being carried out in both industrial and domestic areas. The use of generators in generating electricity is too cost to both industrial and domestic users if compared with the normal supply of electricity from Zesa as the cost of fuel used for such generators is ever going up.  Even the use of solar energy does not come cheap as buying solar panels are not affordable to the ordinary family set up.

For that reason the news that the Chinese financial institutions will release about one point one billion dollars ($1, 1 billion) early next month meant for the expansion of Hwange Thermal Power Station has come at the appropriate time as the shortage of electricity has reached alarming levels. The load shading schedule that has been outlined by Zesa and then put into operations leaves most parts of the country dark for more than eight to ten hours thereby interrupting all operations that only can be done when there is the availability of electricity. Such a situation where the country could take more than ten hours with most of its towns being dark makes its people welcome such news where the investment on the generation of electricity could be a blessing indeed.

The expected release of those funds early next month is as the result of the mega deals that were signed by President Robert Gabriel Mugabe and his Chinese counterpart President Xi Jinping during the President's State visit to that country in August 2015. As such the release of those funds would shame the prophets of doom who were denouncing such mega deals as mere political grandstanding by President Mugabe and his ZANU PF party. Now that those mega deals are beginning to bear fruits those who were doubting the signing of such deals would now understand that President Mugabe is there to make sure that the Zimbabwean economic problems are solved once and for all.

Zimbabwe has been struggling to make its economic fortunes revived because of the shortage of electricity among other factors, for that reason such efforts meant to expand the Hwange Thermal Power Station should be a welcome development that should be embraced by any Zimbabwean. It is a fact that electricity is so essential that its shortage can hinder the economic turnaround of any country and its availability is something to cheer about. So the proposed expansion of the Hwange Thermal Power Station could not have come at a better time as Zimbabwe is seriously in need of that electricity meant to revive the capacitation of industries around the country.

The news by Finance and Economic Development Minister Cde Patrick Chinamasa and the Deputy Minister of Energy and Power Development, Cde Tsitsi Muzenda that the power deficit affecting the country would be a thing of the past in the near future sounds good news as people have been suffering for a long time due to the shortage of electricity. The two ministers told the pre-budget seminar in Victoria Falls on Monday 2 November 2015 that the Hwange Thermal Power Station expansion would add about six hundred megawatts in the national grid thereby lessening the shortage of electricity which the country has been experiencing.

So that effort meant to revive the electrical generation in the country is a good move which would see the country have enough electricity for its industrial and domestic consumption. It is refreshing that when Zimbabweans were thinking that the shortage of electricity in the country has no end, the two Ministers broke good news to the expectant people of Zimbabwe.

Now the nation awaits for December 2015, to come so that the release of funds to expand the Hwange Thermal Power Station brings relief to the Zimbabwean people who have been troubled by the power shortage. As such Zimbabweans should embrace this effort of bringing electricity to the people by the responsible authorities.