ZESA is dangerous: Ncube

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Written by Staff Reporter

Friday, 30 July 2010 15:35

HARARE –Industry Minister Welshman Ncube has branded the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) a “dangerous” entity stifling the country’s ability to inject life into its comatose productive sector. (Pictured: Welshman Ncube)

The secretary-general of the smaller wing of the former opposition MDC said constant and erratic power cuts by ZESA were suffocating efforts to revive industry by the damaging new and expensive industrial equipment “sometimes beyond repair”.

“Some of the challenges we face are with utilities, in particular ZESA, which is twofold – unreliable, inconsistent and sometimes
dangerous supplier of electricity,” Ncube said in last week’s edition of a newsletter published by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai.

Zimbabwe’s power stations have been dogged by ageing equipment and lack of funding to buy spares to revamp its units. The country currently produces 1 100 megawatts against a peak demand of 2 000MW and imports between 300 and 500MW, mostly from Mozambique and Zambia.

The shortfall has led to daily power cuts, most of which do not follow the published schedule. Ncube also blamed the country’s industrial woes on inefficiency by the National Railways of Zimbabwe.
“Our rail system is malfunctioning. If you want to move something from Durban to Harare, it takes two months instead of 48 hours,” he said, adding that the government was considering investing in infrastructure, locomotives, wagons and signal systems to improve the NRZ’s performance.

Ncube said Zimbabwe’s industry was operating at around 10 percent capacity, a statement that contradicted Finance Minister Tendai Biti who last month announced that production had significantly picked up. “We are currently around 10 or so percent and our challenge is to raise it up to the 1996/97 levels and thereafter think of increasing the manufacturing sector contribution,” Ncube said.

According to Biti, capacity utilisation now ranges between 30 and 50 percent.

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