Soda Zhemu, Zimbabwe’s minister of energy and power development, has announced that his country has signed a new power import agreement with Zambia and has kept its existing agreements with Mozambique and South Africa.
The nation was struggling to fulfill its financial commitments to the two neighbors, putting both contracts at risk of termination. Zimbabwe’s power import contracts with Mozambique’s Electricidade de Mocambique and Zambia’s ZESCO were set to expire at the end of July after ZESA Holdings indicated it was failing to pay the required US$6.3 million.
A five-year agreement to import 100 megawatts of power per day from Zambia was signed by Zimbabwe last month, but it was never finalized because Zambia wanted payment up front. Giving an update to the media on the current power situation Friday, Zhemu said the deals had been paid for, and parties were expected to meet their sides of the bargain.
According to Zhemu, “With regards to the power import deal which was struck between our power utility and ZESCO of Zambia, this is a new deal, and it was supposed to fall off if ZESA had not paid by the end of July.”
“So ZESA managed to pay, and this is a prepaid facility where ZESA has been able to pay US$6.4 million that was required, and we started receiving electricity from Zambia on the 1st of August, and we think this will continue going forward. All other facilities are still on. We have a facility with EDM of Mozambique, HCB, as well as ESCOM, which are still on and we will continue to get electricity, ” concluded Zhemu.
