'ZESA Customers Who Replace Vandalised Equipment Should Be Reimbursed'
ZESA customers who buy electricity cables or transformers to replace those that would have been vandalised or stolen are entitled to full compensation, a cabinet minister has said.
Speaking in Parliament on Wednesday, the Deputy Minister of Energy and Power Development Magna Mudyiwa said the reimbursement is in the form of electricity units equivalent to the cost of equipment a client would have bought.
In recent years, ZESA has experienced a surge in the theft of its power distribution equipment including electricity cables and transformers leaving some ZESA clients in the dark for months.
Some businesses and individuals end up buying their own equipment to replace stolen or vandalised equipment as ZESA is taking too long to replace such equipment.
Mudyiwa said the standing policy is that consumers who spend their own money to replace vandalised ZESA infrastructure should be compensated but not in cash.
She was responding to Kambuzuma MP Willias Madzimure (CCC) who had asked if there is a policy to compensate ZESA customers who their money to buy cables to replace those stolen or vandalised. Said Mudyiwa:
There are cases whereby the consumer goes on to buy even a transformer to replace the vandalised one and such consumers are compensated.
ZESA will credit such consumers’ accounts with electricity equivalent to the money spent.
