ZESA To Place All Clients On Prepayment: Gata
The Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) will, beginning next month, start migrating all its clients to prepaid meters, and intensify disconnections for non-payment of bills, an official has said.
ZESA is owed ZWG5.7 billion, with industry, mining, and commerce accounting for 74 percent of the debt at ZWG4.2 billion, and residential and small business clients owing just ZWG57 million.
In a notice to stakeholders, mainly schools that are in the midst of the examination season, ZESA executive chairperson, Sidney Gata said power import arrears have increased to US$137 million due to clients’ non-payment of bills.
“ZESA is owed over ZWG5 billion by all customer segments across the country. The debt is adversely affecting efficient operations of the utility and has resulted in cash-flow constraints that have negatively impacted on national energy security,” Dr Gata said.
“The servicing of the debt for power imports to augment local generation has been adversely affected by non-payment of accounts by defaulters, thereby resulting in import arrears increasing to US$137m. In spite of revenue collection measures that have been implemented so far, some consumers have continued to default and ZESA has no option except to disconnect the supplies.”
Dr Gata said the power utility had resorted to disconnections to force people to pay their bills, so it could also settle its debt to foreign power suppliers.
“By leaving such huge arrears unpaid for over 180 days in some cases, the utility is effectively extending working capital to non-paying consumers without any finance charges being earned, to the detriment of its bottom line and balance sheet,” he said.
Dr Gata said the power utility plans to migrate all electricity supply points, including for medium and large power users under domestic, commercial, industrial, mining, government institutions and agricultural customers from the post-paid to the prepaid platform by October 1.
“Regrettably, the prepaid metering programme is facing resistance from some stakeholders and government customers,” said Dr Gata.
“We strongly advise all defaulters to put in place contingency measures to avert possible losses arising from the withdrawal of supplies after disconnections in line with the aspirations of the government’s Vision 2030 of ensuring increased access for all and growth of the economy at large,” said Dr Gata. *New Ziana*
