Kadoma, Zimbabwe (News of The South) – Zimbabwe’s President, Emmerson Mnangagwa yesterday assured the nation that the current erratic power cuts which the country is facing would end in 18 months’ time, following the signing of a 2 000 Megawatt (MW) Solar Power deal between the government and the United Arab Emirates.
The country’s power shortages have worsened due to the depletion of water levels in Lake Kariba which provides the resource for hydro-electricity.
Mnangagwa said power shortages will be a thing of the past in the next one and a half years.
“I was in Abu Dhabi last week where I was attending the UAE Business Forum where we were invited. After meeting the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi who assisted us last time with three planeloads of goods during the Cyclone Idai disaster.
I said to him, may you come to Zimbabwe and assist us to build solar power plants, he asked me how many megawatts we require and I said 500MW.
He said my brother, if you want 500MW only, we don’t come unless you ask for anything from 2 000MW and above.
I said it’s fine, we want 2 000MW. He then asked me when I was going to depart for Harare and I said tonight. He then said my team is coming to Zimbabwe the following day, and true to his word, the team came and on Monday we signed a deal with first phase of 1 000MW.
We are planning that in one and a half years, we will say bye-bye to the problem of power shortages,” said Mnangagwa.
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Energy and Power Development minister, Fortune Chasi also called for urgent restructuring of the national power utility.
“Zimbabweans are tired of load-shedding regardless of the explanations, part of the electricity challenges stem from corruption, especially in the procurement system.
We need a tight procurement system. The transformation should be current in terms of world trends.
We want to reach a point where we export electricity. Re-bundling of Zesa and restructuring, it is urgent, there is no room for divided loyalty,” said the minister.
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