National power utility, the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) is said to be losing on average up to three transformers to theft and vandalism every night.
This was revealed by ZESA public relations manager Fullard Gwasira in an interview with NewZimbabwe.com on Sunday. Said Gwasira,
Our records confirm that as of August 2018, vandalism had cost the power authority a total of $4.5 million and, measured daily, at least three transformers are stolen every night.
It’s time such thefts are declared a national disaster because they continue to derail huge investments made to avail electricity in the country.
Gwasira denied allegations that some ZESA employees were responsible for the vandalism on ZESA infrastructure:
We do not have evidence that ZESA employees are involved and these allegations just come without the required accompanying evidence.
The power authority has an internal code of conduct which speaks against such issues.
Those levelling the allegations must recall that knowledge of electricity is not limited to ZESA alone as there are a lot of companies which have retrenched qualified technicians and engineers.