Zimbabwe’s state power utility sought to allay fears on Thursday of wide power cuts, saying households would not automatically see daily power cuts but would not be guaranteed supplies during the winter cropping season.
Zesa Holdings, which on Wednesday warned of 20-hour daily power cuts to homes across the country, on Thursday said the cuts would be subject to demand from wheat farmers who need electricity to irrigate their crops.
”Households would not be cut for 20 hours but the load-shedding would be applied mainly during peak periods on a rotational basis and if supplies are adequate there would be no power cuts,” Edward Rugoyi, a senior Zesa official, told the state-owned Herald newspaper on Thursday.
As Zimbabwe sought to ease concerns over power cuts, it came under pressure from Mozambique, which said it may halt electricity supplies to the country because Zesa had failed to pay off debts.
A Zimbabwe government notice published on Wednesday announced the new power-cut programme as the struggling utility battles to shift supplies to irrigate the winter wheat crop amid looming food shortages.
The Southern African country is experiencing frequent power cuts due to the declining capacity of its ageing power plants and crunch shortages of foreign exchange, which have hit imports.
”Zesa undertakes to exempt wheat farming areas from load-shedding except during the four-hour window period from 17h00 hours to 21h00 when the quantum of the shortfall is such that no load can be exempted from load-shedding,” Rugoyi said.
”However, under emergency conditions or extreme supply shortfall situations, Zesa will not be in a position to guarantee supply to any customer at any given time,” he added.
Zimbabwe is in the throes of a deep economic crisis and requires $2-billion for new equipment and to expand production at the country’s two main power plants.
Regular power failures have hit industrial production and contributed to the economic crisis and escalating political tensions.
Mozambique said it may cut electricity to Zimbabwe from its hydro-electric Cahora Bassa Dam because Zesa had not paid debts state utility officials say amount to $55-million.
Adelino Muchanga, spokesperson for Mozambique’s state utility EDM, said: ”We understand Zimbabwe’s situation as of now, but we want them to pay because we should be using the money to fund other local projects; we want to see the debt paid.” — Reuters