Published: 18 July 2025

Harare's last remaining tower lights were switched off this week, plunging Zimbabwe's capital further into darkness - a stark metaphor for the city's deepening governance crisis and financial dysfunction.

The blackout, triggered by Harare's ballooning debt to Zesa Holdings Limited, signals far more than a lapse in public lighting. It has become a glaring warning to the city's three million residents of what lies ahead. Next on the chopping block: the city's traffic lights - the fragile thread holding together Harare's already chaotic road system, which is riddled with some of southern Africa's worst potholes.

Zesa's consumer arm, the Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company (ZETDC), has confirmed that Harare's entire municipal electricity infrastructure will soon operate on prepaid meters, including traffic control systems and public safety points.

Harare's city officials, already battling financial ruin, were caught off guard. Yet it's not just Harare in the firing line. Documents reveal that satellite towns like Chitungwiza have also received formal demands to settle mounting debts as Zesa moves decisively to recover what it's owed.

"Everything will now run under a prepaid metering system," a Zesa insider said. "We have been in discussions with all councils since July last year, and they were given a year to pay off their debts. This is not sudden - it is part of a government directive for Zesa to collect its dues."

For Harare, this is more than a technical adjustment; it's a reckoning.

By midweek, the crisis had reached Harare Mayor Jacob Mafume, who slammed Zesa's actions as "ill-advised" and "ill-thought."

"This is public accounting gone rogue," Mafume fumed.

But ZETDC remains unmoved. The utility insists the rollout of prepaid and smart meters is designed to help councils manage consumption more efficiently.

"These meters are intelligent, offering municipalities opportunities to save energy. In fact, they can even export power to the grid, especially as many streetlights are solar-powered," ZETDC said. "Almost all electricity supply contracts in the region are now prepaid to match supply and demand and reduce load-shedding. No one has been switched off - power is simply available at the point of purchase."

Behind these reassurances, however, is mounting financial pressure.

In a letter dated May 28, 2025, ZETDC informed Chitungwiza Town Council that its debt had soared to ZiG$3 million (about US$111,500). The letter outlined plans to retrofit all municipal electricity points with prepaid meters, warning the council to settle arrears or face deductions of 75% from each prepaid token purchase until the debt is cleared.

"We are in the final phase of our prepaid meter installation project," the letter reads. "Please ensure your accounts are fully paid. The outstanding debt will be recovered at 75% of the token purchase amount."

The situation underscores the broader decay of public services across Zimbabwe's urban centres, where years of mismanagement, corruption, and neglect have hollowed out municipal capacities.

As Harare's lights go dark and its traffic signals falter, residents are left wondering: In a city forced to prepay for survival, who will answer for decades of decay?
- The Independent

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