Farmers feel ZESA heat

TENDAIISHE NYAMUKUNDA

Commercial farmers across the country are crying foul over power cuts by the power utility, ZESA, after dozens of them were cut off mainly due to non-payment.

The power cuts, the farmers said, have effectively hampered prospects of good yields and hit hard on production in the fields.

Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers Union president Dr Shadreck Makombe said farmers have been affected by the delayed payments from the Grain Marketing Board (GMB) hence their failure to pay to the power utility om time.

He added the latest developments are affecting production and were of national concern.

“ZESA is not consistent,” he said. “We understand farmers should pay because without payments ZESA would also find it difficult but now to disconnect farmers who have got crops in the field it does not make sense at all,” he added.

“They should negotiate because those farmers are going to sell their produce and ZESA will then be paid. They should make arrangements for those stakeholders, but it would appear there are some overzealous ZESA officers who are acting contrary to arrangements on the ground.”

“…To disconnect them while the product is in the field is really kind of unproductive,” he said.

Chairperson for Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers Union in Mazowe, Daniel Chinyemba, said the disconnection of electricity by ZESA was a threat to food security in the country.

“ZESA disconnections in conjunction with ZINWA irrigation pump locking are impacting badly on the Presidential and ARDA Inputs schemes which were launched to ensure food security to the nation. Most farmers with functional irrigation schemes have not received their payment as yet for their wheat delivered to both GMB and several millers,” Chinyemba said.

“Farmers received only the ZWL component paid at the prevailing bank rate ZWL 6000 at that time whilst the black market was rating the dollar at ZWL15000 causing farmers to incur huge losses. The ZWL component was supposed to be equivalent to 25% of their wheat sales but ended up being equivalent to less than 7% and the amount was insufficient to clear or even the electricity and ZINWA bills and many other obligations which faced the farmers.”

He complained that while farmers are still waiting for their payments from GMB and other millers and despite that, service providers are cutting them off.

Chinyemba added that the crop situation is dire because of the meagre amount of rain as the country is faced with an El-Nino induced drought.

As a result of the power cuts, Chinyemba said farmers are in a critical situation as they are failing to irrigate their crops and if there is no immediate solution, the country was faced with food shortages.

A ministry of Energy and Power Development official however said ZESA was in need of payments for consumers for the company to meet its electricity demand and pay import bills.

“ZESA is trying to make sure that it meets its obligations that include monthly instalments on repayment of Hwange expansion debt to avoid disconnections which has greatly increased the electricity situation in the country,” the official said.

Sources in the ministry said the power utility is owed US$300mn by customers and has embarked on an aggressive blitz which has no sacred cows.

Over the past years, the source said, ZESA has been lenient with customers, especially farmers.