Electricity outages have escalated in Zimbabwe, with the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority citing vandalism of its infrastructure, but experts say power generation is being crippled by a lack of investment in renewable energy.
“It’s as simple as that,” he says. “What do you do when electricity is restored at one o’clock in the morning and disappears before the sun comes up?” Families still able to stock their fridges complain about food spoiling, worsened by the power utility no longer publishing a fixed schedule of electricity cuts.
“We have to come here every day even if we know there is no guarantee of electricity. It’s better than staying at home and still doing nothing,” he says. But the Zambezi River Authority, custodians of the source of hydroelectric generating Kariba Dam, this week announced that power production was being suspended because of low water levels at the dam.
By Zera’s projections, the country will have excess electricity production capacity by 2030, which is President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s timeline to have a middle-class economy.