Speaking at a meeting held by the committee to collect views of ZESA clients on the operations of the parastatal, angry residents said they had been receiving “out-of-this-world bills from ZESA” based only on estimations, and not accurate readings.
“For the past four months I have been away – but what is shocking is that my bills show figures that are more than those I would have when living at home. To me it sounds very unjustified to have a bill marked as an estimate with astronomical figures,” said Charles Mabasa from Gweru’s plush suburb of Kopje.
Other residents said it was high time ZESA doubled efforts to allow the use of pre-paid meters. The meters allow consumers to make prior payments for exact units of power they intend to use for a particular period and top up on a needs basis.
“Pre-paid meters are important to us because they give a fair charge per particular amounts of electricity. ZESA should simply introduce them and stop this unfairness on estimated bills,” another resident said.
Larry Mavhima, the chairperson of the committee, promised that all concerns would be forwarded to other stakeholders and debated in parliament for recourse.
“Feedback on progress on that matter will be brought to the people by their MPs,” said Mavhima, who is also the legislator for Zvishavane- Runde.
ZESA spokesperson Fullard Gwasira has said while everything was being done to introduce pre-paid meters, the power parastatal at the moment is not able to ensure that it collects actual meter readings in all households across the country due to lack of manpower.
He said the matter was being looked into, and urged consumers to use electricity sparingly and pay their bills to ensure that ZESA was enabled to ensure adequate supplies.
Post published in: Business