ZESA Enterprises (Zent) requires at least US$24 million annually to meet demand for local transformer manufacturing and another US$17million to modernise its plant.
According to Zent officials, the company is failing to meet its target to manufacture 6000 transformers annually due to resource constraints and ageing infrastructure.
This emerged during a visit to Zent by the parliamentary committee on energy where the company called for urgent capital injection and legislative action to curb the scourge of vandalism.
This comes at a time when reports indicate a rise in theft and vandalism of transformers, plunging communities into darkness.
“Zetdc requirements range around 6000 transformers for us to be able to achieve the universal access of electricity to all Zimbabweans, so that our great nation can achieve an upper middle income economy status,” Zent acting managing director, Godfrey Mugaviri, said.
“So we would need capital injection yearly, around US$24 million to be able to provide 6 000 transformers that get into the national grid.
“We need more transformers to ensure that every Zimbabwean has got the privilege to access electricity through our national grid.”
It emerged that Zent is currently producing about 2000 transformers annually, up from around 200 to 300 in 2021.
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Mugaviri said they need another US$17.4 million to modernise the Zent plant to boost production.
Parliamentary committee chairperson, Charlton Hwende, emphasised the urgent need to address challenges through the legislative process.
“We want to see how the government can support them with further funding, because obviously there is still a huge gap in terms of the demand for transformers,” Hwende said, adding that there was need to tighten laws against vandalism of electricity infrastructure.
“I know currently, if you are caught vandalising, you go for 10 years, but I think 10 years has not been a deterrent enough so we will be looking at maybe increasing 20, 30 years, because this is the kind of damage that these people do to constituents.”
According to Zent general manager loss control Festo Madembo, the financial devastation caused by infrastructure vandalism last year pegged at around US$4.3 million.
“As a nation, we are actually losing quite a substantial amount of money as a result of vandalism of national infrastructure,” Madembo said..
“Just last year, we lost about equipment valued at around US$4.3 million, and this is just a replacement cost and not an economic loss to the nation.
“So now we are working in collaboration with Powertel, contracted to ensure that they install a transformer and vandalism system on our transformers so that a signal is sent when someone is trying to steal and then a response will be done.”
Home Affairs minister Kazembe Kazembe once called for the removal of an option of a fine for the alleged perpetrators accompanied with a 30 year sentence.
Transformers are stripped of their copper windings, oil, bolts and nuts, while clean transformer oil has been traced to restaurants where it is used to fry food due to a high-burn point. Transmission pylons on the other hand have been pushed over and stripped of angle irons, nuts and bolts, which are found on two-wheeled scotch carts.
