Following the intervention of the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR), the state-run power utility, ZESA Holdings, has paid out more than US$19 000 in compensation for damages to a minor child who suffered severe electrical burns as a result of gross negligence by the electricity supplier.
The 13-year-old boy was left nursing extensive injuries to his right upper limbs including permanent and irreversible injuries, which he suffered after electrocution in April 2019, with medical doctors estimating his impairment percentage at 20 percent.
In a statement, ZLHR said its lawyers Kelvin Kabaya and Tatenda Sigauke assisting the minor’s parents, wrote a letter of demand to Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company (ZETDC), a subsidiary of ZESA Holdings, demanding payment amounting to more than US$19 000 as compensation for damages suffered by the 13-year-old child.
ZLHR said the minor child was electrocuted by some exposed electricity cables, which were left hanging “dangerously low” and within reach of people at his parents’ residence in Penhalonga in Manicaland.
“As a result of the accident, the child suffered severe electrical burns,” said ZLHR.
In their letter to ZETDC, Kabaya and Sigauke told ZESA Holdings that it was liable for the “unfortunate accident, which was caused by negligence on the part of its employees, who negligently left exposed electrical cables in a residential area, thereby endangering vulnerable children.”
Recently, ZETDC through its insurers Cell Insurance, advised and shared proof of a payment transaction report to Kabaya and Sigauke showing that it had deposited ZWL$92 679 793.
“This amount is equivalent to US$19 658, which was deposited into the bank account of the minor child’s parents after it accepted the minor child’s claim and liability for the damages which he suffered from the electrocution,” said ZLHR
The organisation said it intervened in assisting the minor child as part of its anti-impunity strategies to foster accountability at the country’s supplier of electricity and to deter and discourage acts of human rights violations by state-run institutions.
“ZLHR has previously intervened in similar cases of ZESA Holdings’ negligence, which shows the dangerous levels of carelessness prevailing at the state-run power utility and which in some instances have resulted in deaths and injuries to several people across the country,” said the organisation.
