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Zimbabwe: Pylons Collapse As Thieves Steal Wires
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 Published by the government of Zimbabwe |
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The Herald (Harare)
21 January 2008
Posted to the web 21 January 2008
Harare
Two pylons carrying electricity cables linking Mozambique and Zimbabwe near Zimre Park collapsed last week after thieves stole their supporting wires, causing a break in transmission from Hydro de Cahora Bassa in Mozambique.
The cables also connect Bindura substation to Dema substation and feed power to most of Harare's heavy industrial areas. They carry power imports into the country and to its neighbours -- Botswana and South Africa. The link provides Zimbabwe with 200 megawatts, South Africa 100 megawatts and Botswana 35 megawatts from HCB of Mozambique.
When the Herald visited the area on Thursday afternoon, Zesa employees were busy reconstructing one of the pylons so as to restore power amid revelations that work would soon be completed. Zesa spokesperson Mr Fullard Gwasira said that would mean the country would be starved of power imports from Mozambique and this would lead to increased load shedding.
"Zesa is greatly disturbed by the level of vandalism of vital power infrastructure in the country. "What was stolen is the stay wire that is used to support the pylon upright leading to the collapse of these structures. "Unfortunately, anyone who cut the supporting wires did not recognise the magnitude of damage he was doing to the country and the region as the cables also provide South Africa and Botswana with power. "The recovery of the pylons is expected to be completed very soon. "The vandalism to the pylons means loss of power to industry, mining and agriculture resulting in huge losses to production time and revenue," Mr Gwasira said.
He said vandalism to national infrastructure was costing the power utility billions of dollars. The power utility said it was prejudiced of more than $1 trillion last year as a result of vandalism and theft. The thefts mainly targeted transformer oil, electricity meters and load limiters. The Zesa spokesperson could not give the total cost of recovering the two pylons saying that would only be ascertained on completion. Mr Gwasira welcomed the passage of the Electricity Amendment Act saying it would go a long way in reducing cases of vandalism of substations and stealing copper cables.
"Zesa is happy with the passage of the Act but more needs to be done in increasing fines and sentences so that they are deterrent enough to would-be offenders. "We have also increased education programmes to inform people on the effects of vandalism to the economy."
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Zesa says it is spending a fortune replacing vandalised equipment across the country, money that could be used to improve power transmission.
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