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Offenders in vicious scam face 10 year jail term
Phillimon Mhlanga
HARARE – The Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company (ZETDC) could be losing millions of dollars monthly in potential revenue due to unprecedented bypassing or tempering of electricity prepaid meters by consumers, prompting the power utility to embark on a door to door audit of electricity connections on consumer premises.
The perpetrators of the electricity scam, that has hit the power utility, are believed to have links or have been previously employed by the country’s integrated electricity generation and supply company, ZESA.
The fraudsters, who use former and current ZESA employees mostly for a fee, go all kinds of lengths to steal electricity. More daring thieves are said to be using jumper cables to bypass the meter, exposing themselves to high voltage electricity in the process.
It is also understood that there are some who really flirt with danger by tapping directly into power lines. In all these cases, perpetrators risk burns, electrocution and even death.
This week, ZETDC, a unit of ZESA Holdings, raised concern on the surge of cases of its customers consuming electricity without paying. The power utility has offered a two months grace period until August 31 this year for offenders to regulate their electricity connections.
ZETDC warned consumers that after the deadline, those that would have failed to heed the call would be liable to prosecution and faces a 10-year jail sentence.
“The ZETDC wishes to advise its valued customers that it is concerned with the rising of consumers who are being apprehended by police for by-passing and tempering with their pre-paid or effecting direct correlation without meters to consume power without payment,” ZETDC said last week.
“ZETDC would like to urge those consumers to engage the power utility to take corrective measures to normalise their prepaid meters and to rectify connections without meters to ensure that they pay for what they consume.
“ZETDC is offering a grace period of two months until August 31 2018 for such offenders to voluntarily come forward regulate their electricity connections and by-passed meters without questions being asked as we are aware that some customers may not have appreciated the full impact of attempting to by-pass meters.
“In addition to our own meters reporting back power to the power utility on points that are not purchasing or have suspiciously low purchases, ZETDC has embarked on a door to door physical audit of electricity connections on customer premises and after the grace period, defaulters would be subjected to relevant remedial action which includes penalties and litigation to ensure responsible conduct and revenue protection on the part of the power utility.
“After August 31 2018, customers that are found to have by-passed or tempered with their meters will be liable to prosecution and risk having a mandatory 10-year jail sentence passed on them,” ZETDC added.
The harsh reality is that ZETDC, which is grappling with a cash-flow crisis after revenue plummeted due to increasing electricity theft cases, has been forced to continue importing a larger quantum of electricity from regional suppliers, especially South Africa’s power utility Eskom and Hydro Cahora Bassa of Mozambique. This is despite that, President Emmerson Mnangagwa in March this year commissioned the Kariba South Hydroelectric Power Station expansion project, which is adding 300MW into the national grid.
ZESA’s five power stations in Kariba, Hwange, Bulawayo, Munyati and Harare, generates a combined total of about 1 200 megawatts (MW), but requires about 2 600MW. To cover for the shortfall, the country imports electricity from regional suppliers.
The situation has been worsened by the power utility’s consumer debt, which has increased to over $1 billion as firms and individuals continue to default on payments, a move which poses a risk to power security. The unpaid bills, according to ZETDC, are hampering the power utility’s operations and viability.
It is understood that ZETDC is collection less than $60 million a month on average compared to more than $70 million a month it was collecting last year.
The prepaid system, which was introduced in 2013, has allowed the power utility to collect not just what was due from current sales, but also outstanding amounts from the electricity consumed during the post-paid era.
Last year, ZETDC said it collected about $130 million from debts from its customers’ longstanding debts. It also indicated that about $250 million was still outstanding, but was being amortised through a fixed 50 percent deduction on all new sales.
In the past five years, ZETDC, has procured and installed more than 600 000 pre-paid electricity meters to date in houses and businesses throughout the country as the power utility tries to improve revenue collection. This is against a target of 800 000 by end of this year. Energy sector regulator, the Zimbabwe Energy Regulatory Authority has since licenced 17 private firms to sell pre-paid electricity meters to consumers under a customer supplied meter scheme.
ZESA resolved to allow private firms to sell the electricity meters because of foreign exchange constraints.
The power utility is working on introducing smart- metering system to be deployed to Industrial and commercial users, migrating from post-paid to smart-metering.
About 4 000 of the targeted 40 000 units are expected to be installed by the end of this year.
The system, according to ZETDC, will convert medium and large power users to prepayment to prevent the accumulation of debt and improve operational efficiency.
