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Zimbabwe: Mozambique to Light Up Country During Elections
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Financial Gazette (Harare)
27 March 2008
Posted to the web 27 March 2008
Kumbirai Mafunda
Harare
ZIMBABWE has secured additional electricity imports from Mozambique to cater for the weekend harmonised elections in which President Robert Mugabe faces a tough challenge from veteran opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai and ex-ally Simba Makoni.
Informed government sources told The Financial Gazette yesterday that ZESA secured an additional 100MW from Mozambique's state-run HCB, which was already supplying 200MW into the country.
The increased imports are meant to ensure that key institutions running the elections have adequate and uninterrupted power supplies.
The sources said government representatives and ZESA officials met with HCB officials in South Africa two weeks ago to reach an agreement over the additional power deal.
It was at that meeting that HCB officials pledged 100 MW.
HCB will supply power to Zimbabwe for four days beginning tomorrow until Monday.
ZESA chief executive officer Ben Rafemoyo confirmed the deal with HCB in a terse response to queries from The Financial Gazette.
"They (HCB) will give us an extra 100MW but they will revert back to their 200MW contractual obligation," said Rafemoyo.
Opposition and civic society groups had raised fears that electricity outages could hamper the administration of the elections, arguably the country's most hotly contested elections since independence in 1980.
Zimbabweans go to the polls on Saturday to vote in presidential parliamentary, senatorial and council elections in which the ruling ZANU- PF party faces a stern challenge from the opposition Movement for Democratic Change and some former ZANU-PF loyalists who are contesting the elections as independent candidates.
Zimbabwe, which consumes about 2 200MW of electricity per month, has been generating about 1 500MW, forcing ZESA to frequently ration power and plunge most parts of the country into darkness.
Attempts to fill up the power deficit through imports from South Africa have been dealt a blow as Eskom is also battling to meet its rising domestic power demand.
Economic observers say power cuts are only one of the several adversities that Zimbabweans who are enduring under one of the country's worst economic crisis in history, largely blamed on mismanagement by President Robert Mugabe's administration.
Critics accuse the government of committing little investment into the capital-intensive power generation sector.
Meanwhile, ZESA Holdings' head of business development and corporate planning, Obert Nyatanga, has died.
Family spokesperson Washington Nyatanga said Obert died from cardiac failure at his Greendale home.
Rafemoyo, who worked with Nyatanga for more than 10 years, described him as an industrious person.
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"His death is a huge loss which has created a huge void in the system.
"He used to accompany me to high level meetings both local and international ones where he contributed meaningfully to ZESA's work," said Rafemoyo.
Nyatanga will be buried at his rural home in Chiduku, Rusape today. He is survived by his wife and two children.
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