was because of a line down, and thus not ZESA’s fault, but I think three days is an excessive amount of time to wait for a fault to be fixed.
At other times, when I call the faults line (04704233, if you live in the northern suburbs), I am rudely told that it is because of load shedding and not a fault. That is, if I can get through to the faults line, because recently it has been permanently engaged. As I pay my bill regularly, I do not see a reason for my power to be disconnected. If they publicised a schedule of load-shedding power cuts, it would not be so bad, but as it is, my computer and other electrical appliances are regularly switched on when the power goes out. This has had several repercussions.
For example, the thermostat on our geyser was blown in a power surge, our house alarm battery was irreparably damaged due to repeated running down through power cuts, and, the most recent, the hard-drive of my computer had to be wiped clean because it was on when the power cut out (and I’m sure everyone reading this can empathise with my frustration at having to reconstruct five years’ worth of work). As a result of the hard drive incident, I am going to send ZESA a bill for the repairs that I am having to do, and the time and information lost in the crash.
I doubt that I will get any response from them, let alone the new hard-drive needed to fix the problem, but at least they will know the damage that they are doing. I am not the only person who has had electrical appliances break down due to ZESA’s lack of a maintenance schedule, bad management, and general apathy towards us as the customers.
I suggest that, as people of Zimbabwe, we stand up and make ourselves heard. If you lose an appliance, the use of hot water, information from your computer, pool or borehole pumps, or anything else through ZESA’s inefficiency, please take the time to send them a bill for it and a letter explaining why you want compensation. I don’t hold out hope that we will see any fruits, but if enough of us speak up, maybe something will change.
ANGRY, Harare
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