HARARE Mayor Jacob Mafume this week berated his fellow councillors for failing to come up with a green energy plan, which would have brought the capital one step closer to its residents using solar power.

Speaking at a Full Council meeting held this week, Mafume bemoaned how rural councils were performing better than Harare in that regard despite its financial capacity, and potential as compared to them.

Mafume blamed the council's Business Committee for the failure.

"I am upset because I told people that we needed to have solar plants by now to be able to have a homegrown solution for energy," said Mafume.

"The business committee in its wisdom, or lack thereof, is still dilly-dallying and avoiding coming up with a decision.

"Now rural district councils are putting eight megawatt stations and a city the size of Harare does not have a renewable energy plan."

Harare, much like the rest of Zimbabwe, is battling to manage with extreme load shedding that has seen power blackouts of over 10 hours a day.

Subdued power generation at Zimbabwe's two main power stations, Kariba and Hwange, has worsened the situation. Most Independent Power Producers (IPPs), licensed over a year ago, are yet to start operations or contribute to the national grid.

Rural councils such as Gutu, Matobo and Tsholotsho have agreed to terms and completed solar energy parks that now supply power.

Gutu has a 5MW plant, Matobo and IDBZ agreed to build a 130MW plant while a 6Kw plant was constructed in Bemba, Tsholotsho.