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Outages short Zim revival
10/09/2006 14:15 - (SA)
Godfrey Marawanyika
Harare - Zimbabwe faces the prospect of growing power outages in the coming months as neighbouring suppliers pull the plug, according to power chiefs and business leaders.
Zimbabweans have increasingly had to grow used to living with blackouts that have affected production and business, quite apart from causing further hardship to an already weary population.
The southern African country currently imports 40% of its power needs - 100 megawatts a month from the Democratic Republic of Congo, 200 megawatts from Mozambique and up to 450 and 300 megawatts from South Africa and Zambia respectively.
But the chief of the country's stretched electricity provider says imports are likely to stop next year as all these countries are expected to run out of surplus power due to increased demand.
In addition, money has so far not been forthcoming to enable Zimbabwe to repair old equipment and become self-sufficient.
Technical problems
"We are approaching the 2007-2008 period which will result in the region having a power deficit," Ben Rafemoyo, acting chief executive officer of the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Holdings told AFP.
"We need $3.8bn to be able to generate our own power and to produce an extra 2 000 megawatts.
"The sooner we get the funds the better for us as a nation."
The creaking nature of the power network has been amply highlighted in recent months in businesses and homes.
In December, the teeming township of Chitungwiza southeast of Harare was plunged into darkness for two weeks due to technical problems at a local power station.
Calisto Jokonya, president of Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries, said that the power cuts were biting hard on industry.
"As a nation we have lost a lot of money because of the electricity problem," said Jokonya, whose organisation groups some 300 companies.
Acute shortage of foreign exchange
"The country has invested in purchasing generators, something which we did not need and that is wrong. We need to sit down as a nation and discuss the way forward for the electricity sector."
Brownouts have also affected hospitals, which are making do with skeletal services and outdated equipment as the effects of a seven-year economic downturn take their toll.
"Most hospitals have generators," Kudakwashe Nyamutukwa, president of the Hospital Doctors Association said.
"Even if power is switched off for about ten to 20 minutes, the generators automatically switch on because important departments like the Intensive Care Units need electricity 24 hours a day."
Rafemoyo said the electricity provider's efforts to repair, change or service equipment were hamstrung by an acute shortage of foreign exchange.
"Until we do machine overhauls at Hwange power station we are unlikely to get out of this situation.
"The overhaul will not be cheap though, we need almost US$30m and another $3.2m to fully rehabilitate Hwange which is now only producing almost 280 megawatts instead of 750 megawatts," Rafemoyo said.
Generators snapped up
The coal-fired Hwange plant, the country's largest, supplied half of Zimbabwe's power needs a decade ago before a majority stake was sold to a Malaysian company instead of US and European bidders.
"The other problem we have is that other three power stations that are supposed to be producing 170 megawatts are not generating anything because of lack of coal," he added.
The only ones laughing their way to the banks are those selling generators or solar panels.
"The generators are selling very well," said Mike Dzvokora, a sales manager.
"The cheapest generators we had in stock were sold for Zim$110 000 (US$440), but they are out of stock right now."
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