Perpetua Murungweni / Terrence
Ndowora
A
delegation from the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (Zesa) Southern
Region on May 05 met city of Masvingo officials and councillors soon after
briefing the Minister of State for Masvingo Provincial Affairs regarding their
continued failure to provide enough power to the intake tower at Bushmead Water
Treatment Works.
The
intake tower has been operating at half capacity for close to four weeks now
after a transformer in the supply line got severely damaged.
This
has caused a serious water supply crisis in the city, with councillors recently
calling upon Zesa Masvingo manager Jacqueline Hlatshwayo to resign for alleged
sabotage after her office frustrated stakeholder efforts to find a quick
solution.
Speaking
at the feedback meeting, Zesa southern region manager Rodwell Munodawafa said
they were repairing the high-voltage transformer instead of buying a new transformer
which would be more expensive.
He
said the power utility needed three months to complete repairs on the damaged
transformer, meaning that the water supply problems may persist until the end
of July.
“Instead of buying a new transformer, we as
Zesa have opted to repair the burst high-voltage transformer since it is
cheaper to do so than acquiring a new transformer. Repairing the burst
transformer cost about $3.4m which is way cheaper than buying a new one.
“However,
it will take about three months to repair it so Masvingo should expect it by
end July this year (2021),” said Munodawafa.
Masvingo
Urban Ward 8 Councillor Against Chiteme criticised Zesa for bad service
delivery and customer relations as it took too long to respond to their
complaint.
“If
it was possible we would have dumped you (ZESA) and opted for another company
to supply us with electricity at Bushmead since you lack professionalism. You
don’t take urgent issues seriously and you wait for us to scold you first so
that you can take action. That is unacceptable.
In
his remarks, Ward 10 Councillor Sengerai Manyanga also accused the team of
incompetence, saying there was now a more urgent need than ever before for Zesa
and council to work together.
“There
is incompetence within Zesa management as they do not communicate and give
feedback quickly if there are faults. In order to deliver quality services in
the city, Zesa and council should work hand in hand and should organise feedback
meetings more often,” said Manyanga.
Ward
1 Councillor Selina Maridza accused Zesa of insolence, claiming she once had a
meeting with them on behalf of the mayor, and she was told straight to her face
that council should find alternatives and not simply depend on the power
utility.
This
is despite the fact that Zesa has a legislated monopoly
over power supply, and council, in any case, would not afford to set-up its own
power generation infrastructure.
“I attended a workshop representing the mayor
where a Zesa official told me that we (Council) don’t have brains, we should
make use of the sun and use solar energy as an alternative rather than blaming
us,” said Cllr Maridza.
