Zambia – Zimbabwe – Mozambique – Eskom

(Zesco – Zambia   :   Zesa – Zimbabwe   :    EDM – Mozambique) – Eskom
November 2019 – – this year, EDM, Mozambique’s state-owned power utility, will deploy a brand new floating power station in the Nampula province in order to increase the electricity supply in the northern parts of the country.   The large vessel will replace a similar one which has been working in Nacala Bay since 2016. The old equipment reportedly did not meet the required standards and was unable to regulate the current correctly.

“The great reason for the swap is to guarantee greater reliability of the northern electricity system,” EDM Operations and Systems director Nilsa Pelembe advised.

The tests of the new station are scheduled for the last days of November, while the currently working plant will be disconnected from the grid this weekend.

Due to that, several issues with the power supply are expected and may affect the residents in the northern Mozambique’s provinces, however, the officials claim they would not last too long.

https://sadcnews.org/2019/11/21/mozambique-edm-to-deploy-new-floating-power-station-in-nampula/?fbclid=IwAR2JpXdaJTnnL5yVYEpAdQe1Qy8NrQ1wggHlhqnIsYmd5KV-QjKmh89d36s

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Most of the undermentioned areas are “highly populated immigrants” – they all came as “refugees” and mostly are illegals, wanting everything for free, schools, municipal services, etc.   This are only a few examples and not the whole country, there are more.   People must take photos and put it on social media – facebook and twitter.   If you travel at night, you can see where the lights are on and even TV’s.   Also in other countries, it is also on social media.

Soweto has hardly any load shedding when they owe over R15 billion in unpaid Eskom accounts and areas who do pay have double the amount of load shedding?   This is only one example of one of the hundreds of other places.

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FACEBOOK

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https://www.facebook.com/pages/category/Energy-Company/Zesco-Limited-300106216753614/

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https://www.facebook.com/pg/ZESCO-Client-Complaints-229559237612305/community/?ref=page_internal

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Zimbabwe

24 Oktober 2019 – Zimbabwe se staatsbeheerde elektrisiteitsmaatskappy, ZESA, het kragvoorsiening aan groot verbruikers afgesny weens agterstallige skuld ter waarde van 70 miljoen rand. ZESA sê myn- en landboumaatskappye en binnelandse verbruikers moet hul rekenings betaal om te voorkom dat hul kragvoorsiening onbepaald gestaak word. Amptelike syfers toon dat Zimbabwe tans minder as die helfte van die spitsvraag na elektrisiteit produseer. RSG 24 OKT

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19 November 2019 – Zesa switches off Mnene Hospital – Zesa has switched off power at Mnene Hospital over a bill of about $700 000, plunging the critical institution into darkness.
https://www.herald.co.zw/zesa-switches-off-mnene-hospital/?fbclid=IwAR0dAK2cVXQTlCZ16Xg5ggBsYypKwim495HAZZV8xquUtF7YQl-9HhTIuF8

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26 October – Struggling to wrap your head around the new zesa tariffs? First of all the cost of your units is not influenced by the frequency of your purchase but the value. Each month your first 50 units will cost $20.50 total, then the next 150 units will cost $136.50 total, after that it’s $3.87 per unit. To check how much you will get before purchase use 
https://selfservice.zetdc.co.zw/unitscalculator

 

 

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14 November 2019 – He said he will engage Zesco to find out when the imports will start after making the payment.“We have met the obligation of importing power from ESKOM in South Africa. We have paid for one month for us to import 300MW from ESKOM.    I will have to talk to Zesco to see when the imports will start, but we have the resources,” Dr Dr. Ng’andu said.

Meanwhile, Dr Ng’andu also revealed that Maamba Coilleries will be paid part of the US$20 owed to the thermal power plant by ZESCO.   He said the balance will be paid that the power plant resumes its normal capacity supply of 300 megawatts of electricity unlike the current situation where the company is operating at half capacity and only providing 150 megawatts of power to the national grid.

He said the only challenge remaining in terms of stabilizing power supply is with Maamba Collieries Limited.    Dr. Ng’andu narrated that one machine at Maamba Collieries is down that generates about 150MW of power.  He also disclosed that the government is making some payment to Maamba Collieries Limited today for the money it owes the company.

https://www.lusakatimes.com/2019/11/14/government-pays-us27-million-to-eskom-for-300mw-power-imports-for-one-month/?fbclid=IwAR28TERF8JeqnwQNKFzAIHcsutdd7EXJJqKnLVWsDBZyhHMhtD54bGiF6so

 

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14 November 2019

The Zambian Government has paid $27 million to Eskom of South Africa for the importation of 300 megawatts of electricity for a period of one month.   Finance Minister Bwalya Ng’andu told Journalists in Lusaka this morning that a bank transfer of the amount to Eskom was made.   Dr Ng’andu however said he is not sure which day the power will start coming to Zambia but assured that ZESCO was working hard to ensure the imports starting flowing.
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Dr Ngandu said ZESCO will import 300 megawatts of power from Eskom.    ZESCO is a state-owned power company in Zambia.   (Zambia – Eskom)

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CORRUPTION IN AFRICA

 

The country’s power utility – Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) – as well as its major shareholder, the government of Zimbabwe, have never ceased to explain away and proffer excuses as to the reasons for this dilemma that has revisited the nation after some years of relative reprieve.

Main on this list has been the critically low water levels in Kariba Dam, the country’s only hydroelectric power station – due to the severe drought experienced over the past season. Additionally, antiquated Rhodesian-era equipment at all the thermal power stations, most notably at Hwange, have been cited as another cause of the maddening power outages, as a result of frequent breakdowns.

Other factors attributed to this menace are the non-payment of outstanding bills by consumers, the charging of sub-economic tariffs over a protracted period, a long-term unserviced debt owed to South Africa’s power company Eskom – among others – by ZESA, and an alleged increase in cases of electricity infrastructure theft and vandalism.

Let us take a closer look at all these excuses one by one. Firstly, drought is nothing new in this country, as we have recurringly experienced these for decades, if not centuries, yet our power utility never saw it fit to formulate and implement contingency measures to avert such an imminent disaster.

These measures could have been chosen from a whole host of solutions – given that there should be people specially trained and employed in dealing specifically with such issues – including, investing in alternative energy generation sources, such as wind and solar.

Since Zimbabwe hosted the World Solar Summit on 16 to 17 September 1996 – amid much pomp and fanfare – one would have thought that the government, which is also ZESA major shareholder, would have embarked on a massive solar energy drive 23 years ago, especially considering that the economy was performing relatively well.  However, similar to most gatherings hosted or attended by this regime – or even conventions and agreements it has signed and ratified – nothing tangible and concrete has seldom been yielded.

They have mostly turned out to have been nothing more than talk shops, photo ops, and moments for dining and wining, and a complete waste of taxpayers’ money.

If the government, and by extension ZESA, had taken the maximum opportunity of this solar summit in 1996, this country could have since become one of the major global power generation players and innovators. In fact, we would most likely have been exporters of electricity, rather than importers.

Yet, such is the grim travesty of those in authority in this country – as they wait for the situation to get out of hand, and become catastrophic, and only then do they start running around ‘like headless chickens’ – clearly in panic mode and clueless as what to do, due to their myopic and reactive, rather than proactive, nature.

That is why we now hear of their scrapping of duties on the importation of solar power equipment. Are they seriously telling the people of Zimbabwe that they never foresaw this energy crisis coming? I am very sure that even the then Rhodesian Prime Minister Ian Douglas Smith would have told them that his government knew this way back in the 1960s. Thus, why were progressive measures not implemented way back soon after independence in 1980? Additionally, did the government not learn anything from the World Solar Summit – possibly after wasting millions of dollars in hosting an event that only served to massage the leaders’ blotted egos.

Furthermore, why in the world should a nation endowed with some of the world’s most precious mineral resources sit on its laurels for all these years, quite content with using Rhodesian power generating equipment – which most probably is no longer even still in production anywhere in the world?

Why, in 2019, are we still complaining about the breaking down of equipment at Hwange Thermal Power Station? Are these signs of both a company, and a government, that is serious with its operations, and the welfare of the nation at large? Or, are they merely content with spending all the accrued revenue on personal luxuries and upmarket lifestyles for those in power?

To imagine that ZESA and it’s major shareholder, failed in the simplest of tasks in their inability to even properly maintain – let alone upgrade – whatever they inherited from the Rhodesia era – characterised by the dilapidation of such thermal power stations as Munyati, Harare and Bulawayo – fills me with unbridled shame for my country, as I am reminded of the biblical prodigal son, who wasted all his inheritance on women and wine. Such is the story of Zimbabwe.

This brings us to the issue of corruption at the power utility. The recent Auditor General’s forensic report – conducted by Price Waterhouse Cooper (PWC) – cast a very dark shadow on this company and its shady operations, which witnessed the siphoning of millions of United States (US) dollars, through elaborate schemes of over-payments on transformers and other equipment, purchase of obsolete equipment, luxury vehicles (an executive reportedly splashing US$600,000 on four vehicles), and other extravagant accessories for executives.

Could these millions of US dollars, callously and wantonly abused by ZESA in a warped spending frenzy, not been better used in servicing the outstanding debt it owed foreign power entities, such as Eskom, in order to enable our importation of additional power from these countries? Yet, ZESA effectively closed this opportunity, rendering the whole nation incapacitated.

This corruptly wasted money could also have been utilised in maintaining or upgrading outdated Rhodesian-era equipment, and establishing alternative energy sources – thereby, cancelling out the continual breakdowns at Hwange Power Station, that have been attributed for the notorious out-of-schedule power outages.

Similarly, if the local power utility failed to charge reasonable and economically viable tariffs over the past years – as well as seriously and earnestly following up on outstanding payments owed to it, mostly by the so-called ‘chefs’ and ‘big fish’ within government  – is that the ordinary Zimbabweans’ fault? Should we then suffer because of ZESA’s own ineptitude? These were clearly ZESA’s own shortcomings, and these should never then be burdened on the already over-burdened populace by the sudden impulsive psychotic increases of tariffs – which, only the ruling elite and wealth can afford.

Even ZESA’s alleged ‘special rates’, ostensibly targeted at the majority who are economically disadvantaged, are poorly thought out and planned, as they are clearly unaffordable for the average poverty-striken Zimbabwean – and to make matters worse, most people have resorted to lodging as several families occupying one house, usually using a single meter, effectively classifying them in the expensive tariff range.

Therefore, who is to blame for the power shortages and outages that have adversely affected ordinary suffering Zimbabweans’ day to day lives, crippled business operations – negatively affecting the administration’s own “Zimbabwe is open for business”, and the target of an “upper middle income economy by 2030” – thereby, not only leading to possible company closures or downsizing, but also a phenomenal aggravation of the already high unemployment rate? Most certainly, ZESA and its major shareholder – the government of Zimbabwe – by virtue of their wanton corruption and incompetence have a serious case to answer and need to urgently be held to account.

https://www.zimbabwesituation.com/news/zesas-corruption-and-incompetence-an-unwarranted-burden-on-zimbabweans/?fbclid=IwAR2x35yNx30AIHucW-QD0SCtV1DSXPmn5rhrwPC5HP1VkETyudkS9Eg0nGM

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Soms gaan krag wel landuit na ander Afrika state, maar ook hier is beurtkrag in werking en net sekere plekke word beurtkrag toegepas.    Die vraag is, kan steenkool wel nat word – hoekom nou skielik, daar is tog baie reen in SA, ook voor 1994 toe het ons geen beurtkrag gehad nie? –  Die “redes aangevoer”, die laaste paar jaar klink eerder soos foefies.   Vrae en antwoorde in parlement is nie voldoende reaksies nie – daar word niks bereik nie, die beurtkrag is regdeur Afrika, nie net in SA nie.   Waar is die president en betrokke verantwoordelike ministers?
Escom power to Africa and South Africa