The Zambia Electricity Supply Corporation Limited (ZESCO) has denied allegations by the Millers Association of Zambia that the production levels of mealie meal and other bakery products has gone down due to the persistent load shedding by the power company.
ZESCO Director of Customer Services, Teddie Mwale said the claims by the millers is not justified as the utility company only cuts off power from manufacturing companies from 05:30- 09:00 hours adding that the given time can not affect the production line.
Mr. Mwale said this in Lusaka today during a press briefing.
He explained that ZESCO held a meeting with the Zambia Association of Manufactures where it was agreed that the electricity company should be cutting off power in the morning to reduce the chances of affecting production.
And Mr. Mwale says recent claims by some people that their electrical appliances and houses have been destroyed by ZESCO’s power load shedding are not justified.
Mr. Mwale denied the claims saying most houses have naked and loose wire installations made of telephone wires.
He has since advised consumers to engage qualified electricians for power connections to avoid damage to property.
The Millers Association recently attributed the shortage of mealie meal and other bakery products to power load shedding by ZESCO.
The shortage of mealie meal in most parts of the country has seen an upward rise in prices.
ENDS/ZANIS/YK/GK….PIX.
its high time real business men invested in standby gensets.crying foul will not solve matters but taking a proactive approach.
Stupid Zesco! They export power when they have none to spare for their own. Foolish!
#2 Care to give us some evidence then we can take it up with the powers that be.
#3 which evidence do you want? zesco is exporting power everybody knows it, one example is a line to botswana via kazungula border post and i dont think they can reduce on the supply for export taking into consideration an increase in demand in their home country.
We have had enough of Zesco’s excuses and explanation. The fact is that there is a mealie meal shortage due to the power outages by Zesco. We are paying K53,000 for a 25kg bag of breakfast meal. Zesco has always been defended by the powers that be and that is why they never listen from criticism and advise because they have a big brother watching over them. Parmalat stated the other day that they are losing millions of kwacha worth of milk products every day due to the same power cuts and there is Zesco on the defence. Enough is enough
#2 and #3, unfortunately ZESCO has nothing to do with the Millers problems. Currently ZESCO is importing power from Congo DR to supplement local generation. It is part of this power from Congo DR that is meant for Botswana and Namibia but passes through Zambia that is being mistaken for power export. It is not from our local generation but we are just providing a path to our neighbouring countries because power cannot jump Zambia.
You guys in Zambia should be happy with the power cuts. Atleast you have a reason for getting home late. Problem is June + darkness caused by Zesco = many preganancies!
You guys in Zambia should be happy with the power cuts. Atleast you have a reason for getting home late. You pass through PUBS. Problem is June + darkness caused by Zesco = many preganancies!
Hey Prof #7, what are preganancies?
hahahahaha…. ba prof mutengo waminga u always make me help
#3 honestly you want an example don’t you know all this time Zesco has been exporting power.I got know about that when i was in Grade 3.Come on man learn to argue with facts maybe you have been away from Zambia for a longtime.
#8 professor waminga you are funny in a dirty way.you and shakafuswa are of the same blood.
longing to come back to Zambia. Dont know if I will fit in with the kind of debates and comments am getting over simple typographical errors! I wonder the kind of noise in Makeni since everyhousehold has a generator!!
Prof Waminga, r u married?
hahaha. I dont know
#14 Prof waminga just answer her she has a crush on your grammer!!hahaha
The solution is to privatise ZESCO to enable efficient performance.The monopoly ZESCO enjoys has been detrimental to devevelopment.One can only imagine how poor the service could have been if we only had one mobile phone company for example.Competition brings about high quality service.
Apparently LPM has called an emergency SADC meeting to discuss Zimbabwe. i hope there wont be power cuts when the SADC leaders come in
I hope there will be no lizard story this time around at the SADC conference. at least LPM has got the balls to stand up against Mugabe. The whole SADC pack is a whole load of crap. No wonder Africa will be poor forever.
I wonder why he cant use the same balls to stand up against Shaka
It seem all Zambian blogs are jammed with kids too remote on issues. Look at how confused and ignorant they expose themselves on Zimbabwe? Who do you think has been killing Zimbabwe heartlessly? Since when did things nose dive in Zimbabwe? With your kind of reasoning and seemingly limited knowledge on regional affairs, I’m afraid Zambians should write you off in her leadership strata for any allowance of time ever.Potentially the blog may be an ideal place for your well informed and ambitious kids readying themselves for leadership challenges but the opposite is true here. Ignorance & humble education have taken the toll.
Our kids here exhibit some failing characteristics short of ability to read between some lines of propaganda over Zimbabwe. What do you say about the statement below i excerpt from some post by some Zambian blogger he caught the British former Assistant Secretary of State on African Affairs, Chester Crocker before the US senate in 2005?
“One will never hear them address the point of former Assistant Secretary of State on African Affairs, Chester Crocker when he said in a testimony to the US Senate “To separate the Zimbabwean people from ZANU-PF we are going to have to make their economy scream, and I hope you senators have the stomach for what you have to do.” [Democracy Now! April 1st, 2005] End Quote
Prof Mutengo relax my brother kuli bonesha ta.Pipo with so many degrees like you end up hopeless like Mugabe, Mvunga etc the list is endless.
Believe me you will fit in .
Observer # 19-20 WHAT IS YOUR POINT?
#23 Mashabe is your name evil spirit? anyway you have a point ask them coz some have decided to make this blog to personal, there are other means to chart on net and share rubish issues than combining with real developmental issues, sorry to stoop this low but reality should come out. I guess there even more educated pipo who comment sense on this blog but they hide the names and qualifications for the sake of uniformity, pipo can easy judge you from what you say whether sense or nosense,educated or uneducated
#16 Chapi, privatization is not a panacea, certainly not whole sale privatization.Energy has got social and political imperatives everywhere you go, not to mention national security, that is why some level of state involvement, especially in generation is arguably desirable. You might be aware though that Zambia’s predicament is that ZESCO cannot realistically charge economic tariffs because even the current low tarrifs are a challenge for most of our people.KCM are on record to have admitted that the tariffs they were being charged amounted to electricity being almost gratis for them. If you sell without careful thought, the private Company will never connect Kaputa to the national grid
Having read the editorial on zesco, and the comment made by zesco’s customer relations director, teddy mwale, then one concludes why zambia cannot develop. The chap is a director but he doesn’t know that zesco exports power to some of our neighbouring countries. I came to know this when an issue arose whereby Namibia cautioned/complained about zesco’s power mgt of supply to namibia, just a few months ago. They don’t take nonsense there as they are answerable to their citizens. So, they complained.
In addition, it boggles my mind to learn that zesco customer service director does not know what happens whenever there are abnormal power outages. Whenever, there is a power cut there so many..
Observer #19,20,21. Am with you. Its sad that some of our brothers and sisters have been brainwashed by the westerners.
things damaged and lost. I can cite a few: loss of income by both individual citizens and businesses alike. This is due to unplanned work stoppages. If workers are paid hourly their income is lost coz they can’t work without power. Shops experience shrinkages through produces going bad. This also applies to domestic homes. On a bigger picture, national good will is lost. Therefore, potential investors think twice and in most cases the the final decision is against investing in Zambia. You do not expect a tourist who has come to spend his holiday (relax) to come back or even encourage his/her pals to visit Zambia. When they get back they will really paint Zambia black. So, bwana Mwale,…
…wake up. Zambians are so patient, and when they complain the suffering has become unbearable. Zesco is another company full of very thick mgt. What zesco should be doing instead of depending only on hydro power is to research,(and diversify into) in conjunction with the 2 unies-unza and cbu, into other forms of energy such as solar, wind, etc, in order to satisfy the market both at home and abroad. The excuse that power cuts are rampant due to new mines and other industries does not hold water at all. Coz the investors don’t just snick in. Viable ones come thru the front gate/door (or officially). This leave more room for planning. So, zesco, people are saying enough is enough. Wake up.
Kulibonesha (25),
I beat you if you will ever get a single line of idea or substance from that blogger. My dear you are pushing hard and intellectual demanding questions to a thoughtless “primate” with a 45″ layer of debilitating fats surrounding his brain even after some years at Evelyn Honne College labs in vein to be come an MT.I even wonder how such found themselves in America.
All you bloggers are *****s without brains.
PRAGMATIST/OBSERVER #19,20 & 21
SHUSHUSHU….What point are you trying to make?
Ba Mashina,
The good and life crushing fact that will remain impossible to defeatable in your short-lived life whether you hate them or not is that the so called Sushushus shape the world, shape power structures, determine which regime to build or destroy besides doing the nation-state building.They are universal heroes with Global coordination,technical capacity & clientèle whom no nation has has seen its next day without them or survived without their support.They are jackals of all trades that fit anywhere in all undertakings silently. Ever laughing from the background foolishness and wishful ranting of primates like you dreaming you could destroy them when you are just a lifeless primate
#6 Simple Nomad Uli fontini and a villager at the same time. U watch ZNBC TV too much. ESKOM SA made it clear that they are importing 750 megs of power from Zed and you sit there bluntly defending Zesco.
And which power are we importing from congo when yet we feed a good number of their mines?
#34 Ba Keyzer Soze, Do u know what you are talking about? Zambia’s installed capacity is just about 1,600MW. How possible is it to export 750MW of power to ESKOM when right now, we are just producing less than 1100MW because of the rehabilitation works going on at Kafue Gorge and Kariba North bank? Check your source of data before you come on the blog. Mind you, the total capacity at Kariba is just 600MW as at present.