The Trust reports that between May 28 and June 8, Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority employees and officials from its subsidiary, Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company, went to various suburbs disconnecting electricity from defaulting residents in a most humiliating and unprofessional manner.
Residents have been angered by the unrepentant attitude of the leadership at Zesa, and believe it is time to directly confront this through massive resistance to what they describe as bully tactics. The HRT has received numerous complaints from residents of different suburbs seeking the organisation’s help to negotiate payment plans and reconne-ctions with Zesa. Widows and orphans have been told to pay up their inflated bills in full before power is reconnected.
Residents are particularly concerned that Zesa’s focus is on revenue generation rather than on improving their billing system, attending to residents problems, increasing power generation capacity and adhering to published load shedding timetables.
From reports received from our residents’ committee leaders across Harare, with the highest recorded cases coming from Glen Norah, Mufakose, Highfield and Mabvuku, there is increasing concern that Zesa is inconside-rate to their poor socio-economic statuses. There is a genuine concern that Zesa has ceased to be reasonable and professional in the discharge of its mandate. While this is ongoing, Zesa has also failed to recover its money owed by senior government officials who continue to use electricity for free yet the poor majority is being disconnected.
The majority of residents are defaulting out of frustration because Zesa has not been accountable given widespread estimated billing, lengthy load shedding and a poor debt management system.
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