Sydney Sekeremayi
The electricity authority has been saddled with a mass payment default now at a staggering $1 billion. It introduced prepaid meters as a concrete measure to coerce ratepayers to settle their bills and clear the massive outstanding debts.
The exercise has been rolled out in most residential areas throughout the country, and has resulted in a significant increase in compliance. However, there is still defiance in those areas, mostly farms, where prepaid meters have not yet been installed. Pressure is mounting to get these areas covered as soon as possible.
But last week, Grace urged cabinet ministers to stop the installation of prepaid metres on farms. “Please, I beg of you, ministers when you go to your cabinet meetings don’t switch off electricity to farmers. In fact, don’t put prepaid meters on farms. It doesn’t work,†she said during her maiden tour of Chimanimani East.
Selfish ploy
Analysts argued that Grace’s bid to stop the installation of prepaid metres on farms was a selfish ploy to protect the bigwigs who owe Zesa millions of dollars.
“The First Lady wants Zesa, which is highly indebted, to continue to supply electricity free of charge to farmers. Could her position against prepaid meters be as genuine as she said? I’m of the view that it’s a strategy to cushion bigwigs who still owe Zesa.
“Remember the list that was released by the power utility of many Zanu (PF) bigwigs who owe the entity hundreds of thousands of dollars, the First Lady and president Mugabe included,†said Ronald Mawoyo.
Another analyst, Taurai Mareya, said the economy could not be built by destroying one entity to build another.
Destroy the economy
Grace ordered the Minister of Energy and Power Development Dr Samuel Undenge, who was appointed by her husband President Robert Mugabe, not to entertain motions to install prepaid on farms.
“Please VaUndenge if you see anyone who comes to you and says put prepaid meters (on farms) know that they want to destroy the economy of this country,†she said, adding that agriculture is the backbone of Zimbabwe’s economy. Grace went on to reveal that the Zanu (PF)’s women league had rolled out an exercise to support female smallholder farmers – a programme she said could only be successful if the old electricity bill payment system remained unchanged.
“Women here in Chimanimani need electricity to be able to yield favourable harvests. But if you put prepaid meters when they are farming for the first time, how then are they going to pay for electricity? They need time to generate income before they can settle the bills,†she said.
Her remarks came after Zanu (PF) stalwarts were named and shamed as the top electricity bills defaulters last year. During a parliamentary portfolio committee hearing, Zesa unmasked all the defaulters following immense pressure to explain why its debt was continuing to balloon.
Top of the list
On the long list of Zanu (PF) stalwarts, Information Minister Chris Mushohwe was top with $367,606.07. Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) boss Happyton Bonyongwe owed $350,989.48, while expelled party secretary for administration Didymus Mutasa owed $179,590.31.
Suspended Chipinge South MP Enock Porusingazi’s bill stood at $186,525.46, Ignatius Chombo ($175,085), Sydney Sekeremayi ($108,296), Oppah Muchinguri ($53,699,69) among many others.
The Zimbabwean could not verify whether the debts were ever settled at the time of going to print. But indications were that most of the bills where accumulated on farms.