Residents in Bulawayo’s western suburbs are furious over the sluggish response from the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) to address faults in their areas.
People from Nkulumane, Emganwini, Nketa, Sizinda, and surrounding areas have flocked to the power utility’s Nketa office to express their dissatisfaction.
Some residents have reportedly been without electricity for over a month.
The power utility has been criticised for its failure to promptly address issues with transformers, stolen cables and power outages.
These outages have not only inconvenienced residents but have inflicted significant economic losses on entrepreneurs running chicken businesses.
Residents have also alleged that ZESA employees are now soliciting bribes from the residents to attend to their concerns.
“We have a challenge with ZESA faults department that serves Nketa, Emganwini and Nkulumane. They do not respond to faults on time; they take weeks to respond,” said one resident.
“A senior citizen who survives on selling chickens was crying at their office and they have no empathy when they see an old woman crying”
Another resident from Nkulumane said despite reporting a fault in early April, no action has been taken by ZESA to rectify the issue.
“Ever since the lighting that was experienced on 6 April, we don’t have power and I have a patient at home. I have been to the Nketa office twice and they have not fixed the problem.”
The situation has become dire, with some residents reporting attempted break-ins due to lack of electricity.
When a CITE news crew visited the office on Monday, the residents who had come to report faults had dispersed after the ZESA team reportedly told them that they will attend to their faults.
“It’s true, people were gathered here, some from Nkulumane, Nketa, Sizinda, and Emganwini they come here every day to report but seems they are not attending to faults. Some revealed that they have gone for over two weeks without electricity,” said a resident who was at the Nketa office.
Contacted for a comment, Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company’s (ZETDC) acting public relations officer, Alaina Suliwa said they are not aware of the issue.
“We are not aware of the issue, maybe it is a problem that needs material. If we get the full information about their faults, we will attend,” said Suliwa.
