A dozen main districts of the Zimbabwean capital were without power for the fifth straight day on Saturday. The state electricity company blamed technical faults for the massive power failure, the worst in months of power shortages.
A power surge after load-shedding on Monday blew a main high-voltage supply cable, the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority said, the official media reported. Load-shedding occurs daily across the economically troubled Southern African nation.
Officials also said the theft of cables and oil from transformer units had left engineers — already facing chronic shortages of hard currency for spare parts, equipment and fuel — battling with mounting breakdowns.
Zimbabwe imports nearly 40% of its power from regional neighbours. Earlier this month, Mozambique said it was reducing its output to its western neighbour over a long-standing debt of $35-million.
The five-day failure was the worst in memory in Harare, householders said. Routine failures last between four and 17 hours and have forced many homes and businesses to install generators and inverters — rechargeable battery packs to power lights and low-voltage appliances that do not include kettles, refrigerators or stoves.
Several stores with shelves bare of maize and most basic goods shut down early in the week to save generator fuel.
Clinics and hospitals, usually spared power cuts, ran standby generators on Saturday, but staff at one clinic said patients were moved out after its standby generator overheated and broke down.
A nearby blood bank cut back its operations and shifted blood stocks to facilities in unaffected districts.
Householders with scarce meat and other perishables called friends across the city to use fridge and freezer space.
One suburban cafe told customers on Saturday to return later when the generator had been ”given a rest” and refueled. The suburb resounded with the sound of generators placed on the sidewalk outside businesses, resembling the aftermath of a war zone or disaster area.
In recent months, mothers and housewives in well-to-do suburbs have become accustomed to doing laundry, ironing and cooking and filling hot water flasks between midnight and dawn when regular failures are less likely.
On Thursday, a single US dollar bought one million Zimbabwe dollars for the first time on the rampant black market fuelled by acute shortages across the crumbling economy. Dealers reported the central bank buying at unofficial rates to help pay for fuel and power imports.
Official annual inflation soared to 7 982%, the highest in the world, the state central statistical office said in an announcement on Thursday. Independent estimates put real inflation closer to 25 000% and the International Monetary Fund has forecast it will reach 100 000% by the end of the year.
Power, water and telephone outages have worsened sharply since the government ordered price cuts of around half on all goods and services in June to fight inflation. Many of those cuts, however, have since been revoked.
In a shopping mall on Saturday, one householder used a new greeting heard increasingly often in Zimbabwe.
”Two out of three,” he said — he had water and a working phone but no power.
His friend had ”one out of three” — water. – Sapa-AP