ZESA Holdings has come under fire after the power utility revealed that estimated bills were to continue because it is expensive to deploy meter readers countrywide.

This comes barely a week after Zesa Holdings acquired 10 000 pre-paid meters for the much-awaited new billing system. Consumer Council of Zimbabwe acting director Mrs Rosemary Mpofu said Zesa Holdings was flouting consumer rights. She said consumers had lost faith in the power provider.

"Zesa is just not being fair on consumers," she said. Mrs Mpofu said it was high time Zesa introduced the pre-paid meters that will bring fairness on its billing system.

"Zesa has promised the pre-paid meters and up to now nothing has been done to end the estimate billing system," she said.

Harare Residents' Trust spokesperson Mr Precious Shumba said Zesa Holdings was using the estimated billing system to cover up for thousands of dollars allegedly owed by senior Government officials and well-connected businesspeople. Mr Shumba said Zesa should deploy their meter readers the same way they do when disconnecting electricity.

"Mr Shumba said as long as consumers are still using the current meters, it is Zesa's responsibility to deploy their meter readers countrywide to have actual readings and avoid clashes with consumers.

"As long as there are consumers with functional Zesa meters, Zesa has a legal obligation to visit each household with a meter to record the consumption per month without fail," he said. Zesa Holdings has said it will continue sending bills based on estimates because it cannot entirely bill the consumers based on actual meter readings.