Zimbabwe companies bemoan power woes

Harare - Zimbabwe's industry on Tuesday appealed to government to allow private investors into the energy sector to end a perennial power shortage and accelerate economic recovery.

"There is an urgent need by government to cause existing power generation to be concessioned out somehow, in order to increase generation capacity," Joseph Kanyekanye, president of the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) told a news conference in the capital Harare.

"There are some cases where industries go without power for three days. Industry needs at least 18 hours of interrupted power supply, without this the country is unlikely to see any improvement in industrial performance."

Zimbabwe's power utility has been battling for years to meet the country's electricity needs, often resorting to cutting supplies to some areas for up to 10 hours in a desperate measure to conserve scarce electricity.

Days before the start of the World Cup in neighbouring South Africa, the then energy minister Elias Mudzuri promised to suspend power cuts for the duration of the tournament to allow football fans to watch matches without interruption.

But the regular power cuts have continued, spurring sales of generators and Mudzuri was sacked last week.

The Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (Zesa) has attributed the erratic power supplies to ageing equipment at major plants and low tariffs.

Early this month, a major technical fault at Kariba power station which also affected neighbouring Zambia resulted in the country going without electricity for hours.

Zesa is generating 1,200 megawatts of electricity against a peak demand of 2 100 megawatts and imports the remainder from Zambia and Mozambique.

- Sapa