Zimbabwe Energy Minister shifts commissioning of Hwange Unit 8 to June but assures nation will have enough power when Unit 7 is commissioned in two weeks

ZESA informed us this week that they now have a day of synchronisation and they have put aside the 16th of March for that date. So, they are going to be feeding into the national grid. They are going to test by feeding the electricity into the grid or they may withdraw. After that, they will then commission Unit 8 which we expect to be done in June to give us another 300 megawatts.

Some of the problems are as a result of old generators or power stations from Units 1 to 6; they are too old to function properly, so we expect our problem to be solved when Units 7 and 8 are now commissioned. Government will then refurbish Units 1 to 6.

Government has already sought for funds to the tune of 310 million which is dedicated to the refurbishment of Units 1 and 6 and the new machinery will be procured to replace obsolete machinery or parts. We expect that will increase power supply in the country and we also have additional power from independence power producers. The Government is willing to negotiate with anyone who may want to venture into the business of power generation. In December, that was looked into by the Government and they looked at what would attract investors. 

The investors who wanted to venture into that would use foreign currency but will be paid in local currency. So, they will not be able to service their debts and recover the capital they would have used. Government has now looked into that to resolve the issue. So Government policy now allows that there will be smooth operations with regards to those issues by 2030 when we expect the economy to be a middle class income. We expect that most people will be able to access electricity because no-one and no place should be left behind through that mantra.

HON. SEN. MABIKA: My question is directed to the Minister of Energy and Power Development. Does your Ministry have a monitoring vehicle on the quality of fuel because I now know that if you buy fuel from this service station, you only drive for 5km whilst if you buy from other stations you can travel for 10km?

Secondly, there are power outages everyday and can you assure Zimbabweans because we are likely to lose our gadgets like fridges and  other electrical gadgets. So we want to hear if you can assure us that we are going to get electricity in abundance. I thank you.

HON. SODA: Thank you Mr. President, the first question was on the measures we have in order to know the quality of the fuel that we are buying. An example that was given by the Hon. Senator that some service stations sell fuel that is not up to standard and does not last long compared to fuel in some service stations.

Firstly, Government has given the mandate to ZERA, the responsibility of ZERA is to issue licences to those who bring fuel into the country. ZERA is also responsible for going around monitoring the quality of fuel in all fueling stations. ZERA has manpower that go around to supervise also.

As per your other clarification that maybe there is a particular station which is selling sub-quality fuel, this issue must be addressed to ZERA so that they can go and find out if that station is operating as per the agreed standards. 

The issue of electricity is coming back again as a clear indication that this is an issue which concerns all Zimbabweans. A lot of questions have been raised in relation to ZESA but we are happy that you want these problems to be addressed. What I want to assure the nation is that once Unit 7 has been commissioned, it will enable us to have enough electricity. What is now troubling the nation is the malfunctioning of the Hwange machines which is now causing electricity shortages.

Yesterday, there was only 1 unit functioning which was giving us 76 megawatts. This is contributing to this problem of electricity but what will bring us out of this problem is that the old machinery should be put aside and should be repaired whilst not being used. We can later use them after they have been fully serviced. Once Unit 7 is commissioned, we are assuring the nation that we will have enough electricity. Unit 7 is not very far from producing electricity for the nation. As of now, we will continue in this situation whilst trying to get a solution.

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