Miners remain in the dark

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THE Chamber of Mines of Zimbabwe (CoMZ) says miners continue to face power challenges despite entering into a special agreement with ZESA Holdings (ZESA) for ring-fenced power supply.
ZESA says more than 20 companies from various sectors have signed up to the facility to avoid power cuts.
“…but what has been happening is that mining companies have continued to experience power outages,” Pardon Chitsuro, CoMZ’s chief economist told delegates at The Financial Gazette’s inaugural Annual Energy Innovation Summit in Harare last week.
“The situation remains precarious and a lot more should be done so that power becomes available.
“We are currently engaging the ministry of Energy and the ministry of Mines to try and find a sustainable solution to the matter,” he said.

Chitsuro said the contracts were initially denominated in local currency but were migrated to foreign currency under the “same terms”, after government through the 2019 mid-term budget review, announced that exporters, would pay their power bills in foreign currency.
ZESA says most of the companies currently on the ring-fence facility are in the mining sector. And even though the utility company is struggling to guarantee power to companies already on the facility, other sectors, including non-exporters, have been lobbying for similar treatment.
Tafadzwa Musarara, the Grain Millers Association of Zimbabwe’s chairman, recently announced that millers had made a formal request for the ring-fencing of selected milling companies to ensure production.
Musarara said while the country was making progress in securing grain, power shortages posed a threat to the availability of flour, mealie-meal, as well as stock feeds due to low production time.
Zimbabwe pays a minimum of
US$800 000 weekly to import 400 megawatts of electricity from South Africa’s Eskom after the government paid US$10 million recently to reduce ZESA’s US$33 million debt.
Ralph Katsande, Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company’s acting managing director says the money paid by exporter on the ring-fence facility was helping the utility to import power from South Africa.
“We sign contracts with the large exporters and then those contracts are used to anchor our agreement with Eskom through a bank,” he told a local publication recently.
“They pay their bills in foreign currency and what they pay goes towards settling the Eskom current bill.
“So really, they are anchor customers as opposed to importing their own power and on our side we ensure guaranteed power supply,” he said. newsdesk@fingaz.co.zw