Consumers demand ZESA load shedding schedule

Zimbabweans want Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company to issue a load schedule so that they can plan for availability of electricity.

“Give us the schedules and please ensure we get equal time without power we can't have other areas getting more power cuts than others,” wrote Farai Hith Nganya on ZETDC’s Facebook page this Sunday.

This comes as the utility company has issued a second statement warning of increased outages this month:

“Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company would like to advise its valued customers that there is increased load curtailment from the 24th of September 2022. This is due to technical challenges being experienced at our Kariba and Hwange Power Stations as well as import constraints. The utility is therefore conducting a maintenance exercise to ensure full restoration of service.”

But consumers are not having any of it with a number demanding that ZETDC just issue load shedding schedules as their previous promises of full restoration have proven to be false promises.

Lyndah Dhliwayo Soko wrote: Loadshedding yenyu haina order we need a timetable to enable us to plan time yamunodzima neyamunobatidza. (There is no order to your load shedding. We need a schedule so we can plan for on and off times).”

Other consumers complained that the statements make it seem as if power supply has been normal all along yet they have been experiencing outages well before the announced mechanical faults.

A Bot seems to have been giving automated responses to some of the comments, further raising the ire of consumers.

“If you DM all these people asking for schedules just put the

schedule up here what is so secret?” Deborah Ann Webb queried.

In its previous statement ZETDC said faults that would be resolved within days and increased economic activity were behind the load shedding.

Zimbabwe has a capacity shortfall of around 1000MW and imports power from neighbouring countries. South Africa from which is imports is also facing severe power shortages with power cuts now the order of the day.

Last week Beitbridge border, which connects the two countries, was thrown into chaos after an outage in South Africa brought processes to a standstill. Queues grew up to 4kms at the 24/7 post.