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Serious Electricity Cuts loom As Zimbabwe Fails to Pay $90m Debt


Zimbabwe risks being cut off from electricity provided by Mozambique’s Hydro Cabora Bassa if it fails to pay a $90 million dollar debt

Energy Minister Elton Mangoma has said Zimbabwe risks being cut off from electricity provided by Mozambique’s Hydro Cabora Bassa if it fails to pay a $90 million debt.

Mangoma told lawmakers that the Zimbabwe electricity supply authority has run up debts totaling a billion dollars in un-serviced loans, unpaid imports and its share of a joint power project with Zambia.

Mangoma’s warning comes as Harare grapples with typhoid outbreaks and authorities struggle to make clean water more widely available. Many problems with water supplies can be traced back to shortages of electricity to run pumps.

The minister told reporter Violet Gonda that ZESA needs at least seven million dollars a month to pay for essential power imports.

“We hope people will be able to pay for the consumption of electricity to enable us to pay Cabora Bassa so that the current imports are sustained.”

Mangoma warned: “The government has no money so clearly the consumers of that electricity will have to pay or else there will be no power to the country and that will mean more load-shedding.”

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