Local Government Minister July Moyo owes the Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company (ZETDC) $414,775 in unpaid electricity bills.
ZETDC is a subsidiary of the country’s power utility, the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA).
ZETDC is now suing Minister Moyo at the High Court for the outstanding amount. In its declaration at the top court, ZETDC said:
The defendant (Moyo) is indebted/liable to the plaintiff (ZETDC) as at May 6, 2019, in the sum of $414,775.79 being charges in respect of power/electricity supplied by the plaintiff to the defendant at the latter’s special request and instance in terms of the running electricity supply contract between the two, for account number 2346569.
Minister Moyo is not the only bigwig who owes the power utility substantial amounts of money.
Former foreign affairs minister Simbarashe Mumbengegwi is also at the High Court. He owes the parastatal $273,150.
The former deputy police commissioner Innocent Matibiri is another one. He owes ZESA $167,000.
ZESA recently introduced crippling power cuts after a significant loss of generation capacity at its main hydroelectric power plant.
It owes regional power utilities, Mozambique’s HCB and South Africa’s ESKOM close to US$80 million. ZESA spokesperson Fullard Gwasira had this to say:
As a result of outstanding payment, the two countries Mozambique and South Africa have reduced exports from their respective utilities to 50MW and 100MW until their arrears have been cleared.
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