Zesa Holdings has reportedly engaged President Mugabe's office over the
proposed scrapping of electricity bills, arguing the move would be
disastrous.
Sources said yesterday that the utility's top brass
had held a closed door meeting recently and agreed to engage the
President's Office over the issue of scrapping bills.
The
meeting, according to one source, had come up with a position paper on
the matter, which paper had been submitted to the President's Office.
Yesterday,
the senior official said: "We prepared a paper that we sent to the
President's Office raising those issues. Our argument is that the power
utility cannot slash bills because it has got clients that have been
ring-fenced and some of its customers make advance payments which leaves
the utility at a precarious position as to how it will treat those
customers."
There have been suggestions from various quarters,
including top government officials, that Zesa writes off customer debts
as has happened with water and other utility bills.
The Zesa management meeting concluded that it would be disastrous to
scrap bills, hence the need to engage the President's Office.
Zesa
spokesperson Fullard Gwasira, however, denied the power utility had
approached the President's Office. He said: "That assertion is baseless
and incorrect. Zesa has in place very effective ways of communicating
with our customers. I cannot comment any further on this issue at the
moment."
It could not be ascertained yesterday whether the President's Office had received the letter.
Presidential
spokesperson George Charamba said: "I am not aware of that. Zesa can't
do that since there is no minister. Why can't you wait for President
Mugabe to announce a Cabinet?"
- newsday
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