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By Wisdom Mumera – (News Of The South Editor for Africa).

Harare, Zimbabwe. (News Of The South) – Brian Molefe the Eskom CEO has been credited with the recent 24/7 availability of electricity in Zimbabwe after a long time of load shedding which had crippled business.

The former SA Reserve Bank employee has been saluted in a blog by the MDC-T’s shadow Minister of Local Government Eddie Cross who says Molefe’s ingenuity supplemented by that of other CEO’s from Zimbabwe and Zambia has saved the nation.

Speaking about the Kariba Dam, Cross says after completion of generating capacity the dam will be able to generate 2200 megawatts of electricity at peak enabling bordering countries to meet peak demands.

“Another feature of the Dam and its importance to us is the clever way in which the Chief Executives of the power utilities in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Zambia are managing electricity supplies right now”.

“I think the idea came from the new CEO OF Eskom in South Africa. He suggested pulling an old coal fired station in SA out of mothballs and selling the power generated to Zimbabwe, Zambia and Botswana via the Central African Power Pool located in Harare”.

“We contracted to take 300 megawatts at 13,5 cents a KwH on a continuous basis- that is expensive power but probably what it costs, and this together with our own 4 coal fired stations has enabled us to meet our base load demand (probably about 1000 megawatts).”

“Then the two countries managing the Kariba system have started doing what they should have been doing for years-shutting it down at night and then starting it up early each day and running up to capacity to meet peak demand”.

“As a result, combined with steep decline in demand in both countries due to the recession, we have suddenly had power 24/7”, he said.

“Simple management, what a difference it can make, it’s the key to everything. The new CEO of Eskom came out of the SA Reserve Bank so knowledge of the sector is not essential-just a decent manager of money and people”, Cross added.

After massive load shedding, which could go for a whole day, the country has been under a respite which has seen the availability of electricity returning to levels which in the crisis moments the
country is in can be considered normal

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