Government yesterday confirmed paying US$10 million to South African power
utility, Eskom, to service the debt to the power utility — and the money was
set to be in the receiver’s bank by end of day yesterday.
Last week Government paid $20 million to Zesa Holdings,
which acknowledged receiving the money, but the South African power utility
kicked off some dust when it took to social media saying it had not received
funds from Harare .
Finance and Economic Development Minister, Professor Mthuli
Ncube yesterday appeared before the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on
Finance and Economic Development chaired by Cde Felix Mhona.
Prof Ncube was in the company of the ministry’s secretary
Mr George Guvamatanga and Reserve Bank Governor Dr John Mangudya. Prof Ncube confirmed that Eskom was owed US$33 million by
Government.
He also said Government was working on settling its debts
to Eskom and the Mozambique power supplier, Cahora Bassa.
“We owe Eskom, US$33 million and US$37 million to our
colleagues in Mozambique. We will continue to service these debts.
“By end of today (yesterday) we should be able to settle
US$10 million. We also paid RTGS$20 million, which was domestic, to Zesa and
they did acknowledge payment.
“An issue becomes an RTGS equivalent to these US dollars
required to pay the debts. Often the company in question (Zesa) has liquidity
challenges and this makes it not so easy to honour these US dollar payments
abroad even when we have access to US dollars.
“We are doing everything we can to make sure we extinguish
our debts and power continues to flow,” he said.
Prof Ncube said the Ministry of Energy and Power
Development had come up with strategies on managing demand on power.
“The Ministry of Energy has shared a document regarding
strategies about demand management in terms of demand form power, understanding
who the customers are; mining companies, residential areas, manufacturers,
agriculture; have a sense of how those should be managed, then looking at the
supply side management sources of power; coal, hydro imported from Mozambique
and South Africa and the opportunities for supply of more power through
renewable energy such as solar energy.
“There is also clear articulation of how that could be managed
and now it is about squeezing out efficiency out of Zesa itself in the way it
operates and the way it procures so we minimise waste,” he said.
Finance and Economic Development secretary, Mr George
Guvamatanga confirmed the payment arrangements to Eskom. He said sometimes the process took longer to be fully
processed.
“When a payment is made, there is a process in Government
and there is a point were a budget is released and authorised and a payment is
done. There are other follow-up processes which may include telegraphic
transfer being done, the transfers of the local currency being done, but from a
process perspective. When a budget is released from the Minister’s perspective,
a payment is done and it would have been done.
“The other ensuing process is just a process which then
gets you through to the final proof of payment. That process would ordinarily
take seven days. When the Minister pronounces that a payment has been done from
a process perspective it has been done,” he said.
Zimbabwe is battling electricity shortages following a
sharp decline in water levels in Kariba Dam due to erratic rains in the 2018-19
rainfall season, and generation constraints at Hwange Power Station because of
aging equipment.
This has resulted in massive load shedding, which lasts up
to 10 hours especially for residential customers. Herald
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