5 July 2009
Maputo — Mozambique's Minister of Energy, Salvador Namburete, has said that, for the moment, Mozambique will not cut off the supply of electricity to Zimbabwe - despite a Zimbabwean debt of tens of millions of US dollars to Hidroelectrica de Cahora Bassa (HCB), the company that operates the Cahora Bassa dam on the Zambezi river.
Interviewed by AIM, Namburete said that the supply of power to Zimbabwe by HCB is a way for the Mozambican government to help Zimbabwe to recover from its economic crisis.
Although the debt owed by the Zimbabwean electricity company (ZESA) to HCB is now approaching 50 million dollars, Namburete said there was no question of disconnecting Zimbabwe.
"The inclusive government of Zimbabwe needs our support", said Namburete. "An effort is being made by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) to help Zimbabwe's economic recovery, and later on Zimbabwe can pay its debts sustainably".
In June, Zimbabwe suffered a major black-out. HCB explained that this was due to oscillations in the Zambian electricity system, which had knock-on effects in Zimbabwe. This obliged HCB to interrupt the supply of power for safety reasons. The power cut lasted for about four hours.
At the time, some of the Zimbabwean press claimed the power cut was due to ZESA's debts to its suppliers. Mozambique, and the other suppliers of power to Zimbabwe had, according to this theory, thrown the switches as a warning.
Namburete categorically denied this. He added that in April the Zimbabwean government sent its own Energy Minister to Maputo to negotiate a longer period to pay the debt. He asked for time "so that Zimbabwe can reorganize itself". The Mozambican side granted this request.
"Naturally, this is political support", said Namburete, "but the two companies (HCB and ZESA) have to sit down and turn that political support into a specific document with dates and other details, so that we can accompany the liquidation of the debt".
This is not the first time that Zimbabwe has accumulated a large debt to HCB. In early 2008, HCB did cut off Zimbabwe for ten days to force ZESA to pay at least some of its debt, which then stood at around 30 million dollars.
Despite the payment problems, Namburete said that the sale of power to Zimbabwe is, in principle, a profitable business. "The tariffs are good - we just have to check the period for clearing the debt", he stressed.
Currently the contract between the two companies stipulates that HCB should supply ZESA with 200 megawatts - but that sum does not always reach Zimbabwean consumers because of the poor state of the transmission lines on the Zimbabwean side of the border.
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