Zesa disconnected over 1 500 households in Stoneridge Phase
1 in Harare South after discovering that a fired former employee of an approved
contractor made the connections without following the normal procedures.
The illegal connections are believed to have been done by
Peni Jaison (31), who was once employed by a Harare company called Ethood Electrical
Engineering Company, but operating as Luckstone Concrete.
Luckstone Concrete had been contracted by the residents to
connect electricity in the area, but some residents felt the charges were high
and hired Jaison, who used materials left on site by his former employer and
cables believed to have been stolen from Zesa.
Jaison has since gone into hiding and police have launched
a manhunt.
A team from the police and Zesa loss control officers
yesterday morning visited the area and held a brief meeting with some of the
residents before disconnecting power after informing them that it had been
illegally connected.
In an interview, Stoneridge residents’ chairperson for
Cluster R, Mr Alfred Chadzamira, said when they contracted Luckstone, they were
asked to pay US$195 for each household for the work to be done.
“Before we paid the money, some of the residents later felt
that the company had breached our contract and that is when we engaged Peni
Jaison. We didn’t know that he had been fired by the company,” he said.
He said after contracting Jaison, he started illegally
connecting electricity and so far about 1 500 houses now had electricity in the
suburb.
Investigations carried out by The Herald revealed that
Jaison would connect electricity using the poles that were erected by his
former employer with the connections being done during the lockdown.
The matter was discovered by the company officials who then
alerted Zesa and the police.
Luckstone managing director Mr Melvin Gwishiri said the
residents should have been aware that Jaison had been fired since Luckstone had
made this clear since July last year when he was relieved of his duties as a
result of misconduct.
“They were aware that he (Jaison) had been fired from our
company and maybe the reason they contracted him was that he could have lured
them by charging them less for his services. This could be the reason they took
a shortcut probably for their own benefit but now they realise that the
shortcut they took is more expensive than what they thought it could be,” he
said.
Mr Gwishiri said the offence was discovered over the
weekend prompting Luckstone to make a report with the police who then visited
the area.
The Zesa loss control officers invited the residents to
their offices today so that they can map the way forward as investigations
continue. Herald
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