Posted By own Staff Tuesday, 02 March 2010 08:28

The Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) has recently purchased about 10 000 prepaid power meters.

The prepaid power meters were sourced by ZESA as a stop-gap measure to assist customers who have all along  been facing difficulties of paying for the power after use. Bulawayo ZESA’s sales manager Patrick Ngwende recently said as the power utility realised that its customers faced difficulties of paying bills after using electricity, the power utility  decided to purchase about 10 000 prepaid meters in addition to the over 5 000 meters already there.

He said this would enable their customers to use only the power that they would have paid for hence that would not cripple the utility’s operations.ZESA has all along had over 5 000 prepaid power meters across the country but the system of running the prepaid power had totally crumbled according to ZESA internal sources, meaning that even though the meters were there, the operational system of the prepaid power was no longer usable.The ZESA Matabeleland Region general manager, Lovemore Chinaka recently confirmed that the utility had over 5000 prepaid power meters. He also said the system needed a total overhaul before it was reactivated to  customers.

“The prepaid power meters and the distribution system have been there but at the moment we need to overhaul  and update the system before we reactivate it to the customers. We are in the process of doing that and very soon we will be providing that service to the customers,” said

Chinaka recently at a Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce meeting. Ngwende said out of the 10 000 prepaid meters that the utility had acquired, 5 000 would be for Bulawayo while the other 5 000 would be

for Harare.

“The plan for the utility to revitalise the prepaid power system is under way and as we speak, about 10 000 meters have been acquired which according to the information I got 5000 would be for Bulawayo and the other 5000 would be for Harare.  According to the information we have here, the 10 000 meters acquired would not be the last ones but the company would continue to acquire more so as to enable all those who feel it’s better to use the prepaid power than the pay after use to do so, ” said Ngwende.

He could not be drawn into revealing where the meters were acquired from and their cost. Power users across the country have been crying foul that ZESA was  sending them high bills which they could not pay.  Some consumersreceived bills ranging from US$100 to US$1000 figures which are far beyond their monthly salaries.

The reintroduction of the prepaid power meters is expected to resolve the problem of customers failing to pay their bills as they would be paying for their power before using it.

The utility has already resorted to disconnecting its customers with outstanding bills.