Townhouse was last week Tuesday plunged into darkness when national energy supplier the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA), cut off supplies over an estimated $774 million bill.
Two other council facilities, Cleveland House and Remembrance Drive, have reportedly been without electricity for at least five days.
Cleveland House is where the urban planning services and the engineering departments are based, while Remembrance Drive is home to the housing department and its divisions.
Media reports suggest that even Mayor Muchadeyi Masunda’s offices were in total darkness on Friday, with idle workers attending only to those queries requiring manual processing.
Last week council officials could not shed light over what was happening at townhouse, with Mayor Masunda saying he did not have the full details as he had been abroad, while the council’s spokesman indicated that he was out of the office.
Precious Shumba, who heads the Harare Resident’s Trust, said given such abdication of responsibility by officials, it was hardly surprising that ZESA had taken steps to disconnect supplies. He said the switch-off highlights the lack of planning that residents are confronted with at the municipality.
He said: “While we condemn the way ZESA has handled the situation, this is what residents have always complained about: a lack of foresight on the part of those entrusted with running the city on our behalf.
“Generators are sold everywhere in Zimbabwe and for such a large authority to lack a backup plan for when something like this happens boggles the mind.”
Shumba said for the past decade, Zimbabwe has been facing power outages and load shedding and the council should by now have put in place measures to ensure that there are no major disruptions to council business when power is disconnected, for whatever reason.
Harare Water also owes ZESA $45 million, accumulated over 45 months, with monthly power consumption at $1 million a month at its water treatment plants, according to state media.
It was not possible to verify the figures with council spokesman Leslie Gwindi as he refused to speak us, saying all questions should be sent to him in writing. Gwindi had not responded by close of business Monday.
It is understood that the huge council bill includes charges for traffic and street lights, as well as for the council-owned properties such as Mbare Hostels, where ZESA has failed to install meters due to the poor state of the buildings.
However the majority of street, traffic and tower lights, like most other facilities in the country, are in a state of disrepair and do not work.
Shumba said it was important for the Harare City Council and ZESA to reach a workable arrangement over the outstanding bill so that normal council business resumes as soon as possible. – SW Radio Africa News
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