By Princess Eugene Majuru
Harare, Zimbabwe ( News of The South) —The Zimbabwean government recently unveiled its ambitious Artificial Intelligence (AI) Strategy, a forward-thinking plan Minister of Information, Publicity, and Broadcasting Services, Dr. Jenfan Muswere, touted as evidence of the nation’s commitment to economic sovereignty, cultural values, and inclusive development. Announced during a post-Cabinet press briefing, the strategy aims to “reshape the country’s technology landscape” and ensure “no individual or community is left behind in the country’s technological advancement.”
While the strategy is laudable for its vision and its recognition of AI as a key driver for modernization—potentially impacting sectors from smart agriculture to urban infrastructure—a critical question hangs over the entire plan: How will Zimbabwe power a smart future when its existing electrical grid can barely sustain the present?
The Reality Check: An Unreliable Grid
The foundation of any “smart intelligence system,” whether managing traffic flows, monitoring municipal services, or operating advanced computing centres, is reliable, consistent, and affordable electricity. Unfortunately, Zimbabwe’s current reality presents a stark contrast to the promised AI future.
Major urban centres, including the capital Harare, are plagued by frequent, long-duration power outages, commonly known as load-shedding. Crucial public infrastructure, such as traffic lights and street lights, often remain non-functional due to power cuts, leading to chaos on the roads and increased security risks at night.
A fully functional, AI-driven system for managing cities, roads, and crucial communications requires not just a stable power supply, but a high-quality, uninterrupted electrical source to maintain the integrity of vast data centres and network hardware. The current national grid, strained by aging infrastructure, mounting maintenance debts, and capacity shortfalls, is simply not capable of providing this reliability.
AI on Paper vs. Implementation: The Missing Link
The government’s AI strategy, while sounding good on paper, has thus far failed to publicly address the fundamental energy problem or articulate a realistic, concurrent plan to resolve it.
The lack of a “powering plan” raises several critical concerns:
Feasibility of Core AI Infrastructure: High-performance computing, deep learning models, and the data centres required to run a national AI system demand massive, continuous amounts of power. Without a dedicated, high-capacity energy source, the entire strategy remains theoretical.
Exclusionary Development: The strategy emphasizes “leaving no one behind.” Yet, if the power grid remains unreliable, the benefits of smart services will only accrue to those wealthy enough to afford private backup power (generators and solar solutions), thereby exacerbating the very digital and economic exclusion the plan seeks to address.
Sustainability of Equipment: Expensive electronic and computing hardware used for smart roads and IoT (Internet of Things) devices are highly vulnerable to damage from the power surges and dips characteristic of an unstable grid, leading to massive maintenance costs and equipment failures.
Commentary: A Call for Prioritized Infrastructure
The enthusiasm for AI is understandable, as it represents the modern face of development. However, technological advancement cannot be successfully divorced from basic infrastructure. The Zimbabwean government must recognize that reliable electricity is the foundational prerequisite for any AI success.
The AI Strategy needs to be immediately coupled with a clear, time-bound, and fully funded National Power Reliability Plan. This would likely involve:
Accelerated Investment in Power Generation: Prioritizing the completion of planned thermal and hydro projects, alongside utility-scale solar farms.
Decentralized Energy Solutions for Critical Infrastructure: Creating dedicated, robust solar or hybrid power solutions for all critical municipal services, such as traffic lights and urban surveillance systems, before integrating them into an AI network.
Smart Grid Investment: Modernizing the transmission and distribution network to minimize line losses and improve grid stability.
Launching an AI strategy without first addressing the power crisis is akin to buying a sophisticated new car when the roads are impassable. While the vision for economic sovereignty is commendable, its reality hinges on the ability to keep the lights on. The government must shift its focus from the theoretical promise of a smart future to the practical necessity of a reliable present.
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