Industry regulator, the Zimbabwe Electricity Regulatory Authority on Wednesday said it had approved the new tariffs that would see electricity charges going up by 7.53 cents per kilowatt to hour to 9, 94 cents.
But residents who spoke to The Standard said the increase was not justified since they did not have electricity most of the time due to Zesa’s frequent load shedding.
Comfort Muchekeza, the Consumer Council of Zimbabwe’s Bulawayo regional manager said the utility was trying to punish its customers for its failure to collect revenue.
“While we acknowledge that Zesa need funds to operate, I believe they are simply failing to collect revenue and they now want to punish the few honest customers for their inefficiency,” Muchekeza said.
“In the discussions we have had with them, they always say less than 10% of consumers pay their bills and 90 % owe them a lot of money.
“Instead of penalising the faithful, they should put in place measures to ensure that everyone pays even if that means compelling all consumers to use pre-paid meters.”
Employers’ Confederation of Zimbabwe executive director John Mufukare said they learnt about the increase from the press.
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“We lament categorically the lack of social dialogue in Zimbabwe,” Mufukare said.
“We are not aware what has brought about the need to increase the tariffs and naturally, we would be very suspicious because we were not consulted although there could be good reasons why they took the decision.”
His sentiments were echoed by Barnabas Mangodza of the Harare Residents Association who said residents were already overburdened by huge bills.
“This unplanned increase is unfortunate and we may choose not to pay the 30 percent because we are already overburdened,” he said.
Precious Shumba of the Harare Residents Trust said Zesa must show how the parastatal arrived at the new tariffs, which he said cannot be justified.
He said Zesa should first improve its electricity supplies and rehabilitate its meter reading system before increasing tariffs.
However, Zesa spokesman Fullard Gwasira said they had followed all the necessary steps before seeking the regulator’s approval to review tariffs.
“The tariff application and setting is a very consultative process which involves business, industry and residents through their constituent bodies and this process was duly completed,” he said.
He said the parastatal had “consistently improved service delivery since the inception of dollarisation” but needed money for electricity imports.
