Published by the government of Zimbabwe
8 October 2008
Bulawayo — ZESA is battling to repair and restore vandalised and stolen transformers around Bulawayo amid reports that some of its workers are asking residents to contribute as much as R10 000 towards the replacement of a single transformer.
Some of the affected suburbs where residents have gone for months without power include Lobengula West, Richmond and Entumbane.
At a meeting held at Entumbane Hall at the weekend, a resident who identified himself as Mr John Dube, said Zesa workers told them to contribute R10 000 so that their transformer could be replaced.
"When we approached the offices, they always promise to come but never turn up but when we spoke to some individuals, they demand R10 000, saying unless we pay that amount, they will not attend to the matter," said Mr Dube.
A total of 80 houses were affected by the problem and they have since decided to contribute R125 per household in a bid to raise the amount.
The councillor, for the area, Councillor Prince Dube, advised residents against paying any money to individual workers as they risked being conned.
He said any arrangement to do with payment of money should be done officially at Zesa offices.
Richmond residents have gone for five months without electricity, following the theft of cables in the area.
A resident from the area, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said they have given up visiting Zesa offices as they are always told that the engineers were away.
"It is five months now and they always tell us that they are coming.
"This is despite the fact that only two metres of copper wire were stolen.
"A day after the theft, some workers from Zesa came and took the remainder, saying they were taking it for safe keeping.
"Ever since that time we have been living in the dark.
"What we want to know now is what happened to the remainder," said one of the residents.
In Luveve, transformer oil was stolen and it took three months for Zesa to attend to the problem.
Speaking during an "Energy Indaba" workshop recently at the Bulawayo Small City Hall, Zesa regional manager for the Western Region, Mr Lovemore Chinaka, said it was illegal for Zesa workers to demand payment from residents.
He urged the residents to report such workers.
He also advised residents to be wary of people demanding fuel saying any assistance should be accounted for at the parastatal's offices to avoid a situation where individual workers benefit corruptly from power consumers.
Of late, some unscrupulous Zesa workers have been taking advantage of desperate consumers to demand payment in foreign currency or in the form of fuel before they could attend to faults.
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