BULAWAYO has been hit by a series of power outages with several suburbs going for weeks without electricity as organised copper theft syndicates continue to strike in the city.
The Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution
Company (ZETDC), which is prejudiced of more than US$2 million annually through
copper theft and vandalism of transformers, is struggling to replace the stolen
cables with aluminium ones.
ZETDC has said it has appealed for the army and police to
assist in fighting the thefts.
Last year, Government suspended the issuance of licences
for dealing in scrap copper pending the amendment of the Copper Act, which will
among other issues contain stiffer penalties of up to 10 years and above for
those illegally dealing in copper or caught stealing it.
Vehicles that will be used to transport stolen copper will
also be impounded. ZETDC requires more than US$14 million to procure intruder
detection gadgets to fight the scourge that continue to bleed the power
utility.
A Chronicle news crew yesterday visited some of the
affected suburbs where residents have gone for weeks without power. Residents
revealed that copper theft cases were rampant in their suburbs with some
alleging that Zesa employees were involved in the racket.
Mr Willard Murenje, who runs a poultry and horticulture
project in Waterford said his business has been tremendously affected after
going for more than a week without power.
“I have more than 300 chicken that I keep and prior to the
power blackout, I had slaughtered quite a number of them and they are in my
freezer. However, if I continue keeping them with this prolonged power outage,
I am likely to incur losses,” he said.
“I had to buy a generator to power my water pumping system
for my horticulture project and it is proving to be costly to run with diesel.”
Mr Murenje urged ZETDC to engage soldiers to assist police
in their night patrols. “This is now a security issue if people are going to
sabotage the Government by cutting and stealing copper cables. Zesa Holdings
should consider roping in the Zimbabwe National Army to assist police in
dealing with this scourge,” he said.
“It seems Zesa Holdings doesn’t have enough manpower to
pull down the copper cables and replace them with aluminium ones. We have many
unemployed youths who can be engaged on contract basis.”
Mr Murenje’s son, Simbarashe who is an IT student at the
Bulawayo Polytechnic said the black-out has affected his online lessons.
“I rely heavily on our Wi-Fi at home for researching and
online lessons. I am actually preparing to write my exams and it’s now a week
without electricity and this has a negative impact on my preparations,” he
said.
Mr Fanyana Dube, also of Waterford said thieves cut a razor
wire on their perimeter fence to gain access into their yard where they pulled
down cables from a pylon.
He said thieves are also now taking advantage of the power
blackout to steal from their homes at night. “Thieves got into our yard where
there is a Zesa pylon and stole cables. This prolonged power cut due to the
theft of copper cables is resulting in thieves sneaking into our homes under
the cover of darkness to steal,” he said.
Another resident said on Wednesday night, thieves tried to
steal some cables, which Zesa workers had pulled down in their neighbourhood
after they raised alarm.
In Waterford, several houses situated on Holland,
Northstar, Lavinia and David Bernard streets have been affected by the power
blackout.
Chronicle also visited Hillside suburb in Bulawayo where
several houses along Kent and Oxford streets have gone for several days without
electricity after thieves pounced on the suburb.
Ms Marylin Dube said she was now relying on her
diesel-powered generator and gas for cooking and lighting as well as pumping
water from her borehole.
“Because of this power outage, I am now forced to buy
diesel to pump water from the borehole and it is very costly. This fault was
reported almost a week ago and up to now there is no positive response from
Zesa,” she said.
Ms Dube, who is diabetic, said some of her vegetables and
fruits have gone bad. She said the outage affected 40 homes in the suburb.
In January, residents from a section of the same suburb and
parts of Fourwinds suburbs went for 10 days without electricity after thieves
stole nearly 2km of copper cables along Matopos Road.
ZETDC’s acting western region general manager Engineer
Lloyd Jaji said they were now struggling to replace the cables due to
inadequate resources.
“The permanent solution is to replace copper cables with
aluminium ones which we have run out of stock. We have engaged the army and the
police including people at the highest level in the province to assist us in
this fight against copper theft,” he said.
“There are also allegations that some of our employees are
involved and if they are caught, they should also face the music.”
Eng Jaji said last year police arrested 68 suspects in
connection with theft of copper cables.
“The major challenge is that whenever we replace copper
cables, thieves go and attack another area resulting in a power blackout,” he
said. Eng Jaji said all suburbs in the city are affected by daily copper
thefts.
Bulawayo police spokesperson Inspector Abednico Ncube said
they were concerned over rampant theft of copper cables.
He urged residents in the affected areas to work with
police and ZETDC in surveillance and increasing security around power lines. Chronicle
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