Energy and Power Development Minister Zhemu Soda said the ongoing amendment of the Electricity Act will come up with stiffer penalties that will deter perpetrators of power supply equipment vandalism.
Speaking in an interview with The Manica Post on the sidelines of the Ministry of Energy and Power Development third quarter strategic planning and performance review workshop in Nyanga recently, Soda said:
The amendments to the Electricity Act will result in stiffer penalties being meted out to vandals.
We are referring to those destroying equipment that is supposed to be used in the transmission and distribution of electricity.
Everyone is noticing what is happening. We have people tampering with the equipment, so we are proposing stiffer penalties through the amendments.
This will act as a deterrent to would-be offenders. People must not tamper with electricity transmission equipment for whatever reason.
According to the Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company (ZETDC), 535 cases of power supply infrastructure vandalism or theft, with a total cost of US$1.5 million, were recorded during the first quarter of this year nationwide.
Only US$113 063 was recovered, constituting 14 percent recovery.
A total of 89 arrests were made and of those, only 19 were convicted.