ZAMBIA’S High Commissioner to South Africa, Emmanuel Mwamba has invited a South African based company to provide urgent solutions to help Zambia address her current electricity shortages.
Mr. Mwamba urged Energyst – Energy Rental Solutions to make arrangements so that they could travel to Zambia and meet relevant officials for guidance on how they could assist Zambia in resolving the critical power deficit.
Mr. Mwamba attributed energy crisis in 50 years due to last year’s poor rainfall as Zambia’s hydro-power generation system is entirely rain-fed.
The Zambian Envoy was speaking when Energyst Commercial Manager Marissa Spencer paid a courtesy call on him at his office in Pretoria this afternoon.
This is contained in a press statement issued to ZANIS in Lusaka today by Issued by Press Secretary at the Zambian Embassy in South Africa,
Nicky Shabolyo.
The High Commissioner said Zambia was currently spending huge amounts of money on importing power from neighbouring Mozambique and that this was still not enough to meet Zambia’s requirements.
“We have a serious challenge with power and we are welcoming suggestions which could help address it. I feel solutions such as yours could just help us find a quick and effective solution to end our woes because they are not like what you would get through solar, or thermal or even the battery system as these take much longer to come on-stream and cost more,” Mr. Mwamba said.
In response, Energyst Commercial Manager Marissa Spencer said her company whose shareholders are world renowned Caterpillar and Barloworld, installs and operates power plants on rental basis across the world.
Ms. Spencer disclosed that her company recently completed a 12 megawatts plant in Burundi while others have been installed in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Cameroun.
Ms. Spencer said the power plants can either be diesel or gas run and could be built to benefit the Zambian people.
She said her company would be ready to come to Zambia in the next two weeks to carry out a feasibility study thereafter begin installation works.
She said Energyst was able to install facilities from 10 megawatts to hundreds of megawatts and that such projects would take about three to five weeks.
She said Energyst also trains staff and transfers the equipment to clients in an event that the agreement was meant for purchase.
Meanwhile, the US Government has indicated intentions to assist Zambia mitigate her power outages.
United States Ambassador to Zambia Eric Schultz disclosed in Lusaka recently that his country would offer solutions to the energy sector.
The Zambian government is importing 100 megawatts electricity from neighbouring Mozambique.
Energy Minister Christopher Yaluma said Zambia is negotiating for more electricity as the country runs through up to December when the water levels in lakes and rivers stabilizes.
In another development, Ukraine has offered Zambia to explore various scholarship opportunities that exist in East European country.
This came to light when Ukrainian Ambassador to South Africa, Yevgen Burkat paid a courtesy call on Zambia’s High Commissioner to South Africa Emmanuel Mwamba at his office in Pretoria.
Mr. Burkat told his Zambian counterpart that Zambia was an important country to Ukraine considering the historical position it occupied in Africa as well as Eastern Europe.
The Envoy , who is accredited to 11 African countries, said Ukraine has prioritised three countries among which Zambia where there was a lot of untapped economic gain working more closely between the two countries.
The Ambassador appealed for support as the “young” nation of Ukraine tries to build relations with both multilateral and bilateral partners.
And Mr. Mwamba welcomed the invitation to explore scholarship opportunities in Ukraine saying these would greatly benefit many Zambian youths in need of skills development.
Mr. Mwamba agreed with his Ukrainian counterpart on the need for the two countries to strengthen their economic and other forms of cooperation pointing out that Zambia has always stood ready to engage with all partners that meant well.
Mwamba leave these foreigners alone, they have done rubbish thru xenophobia in their country and you want them to make money out of zambians why? Am coming to Zambia next with generators for sale and rental. Just what’s up me +27795740387
Ba Emmanuel M****** you are just useless crook. you think people are so cheap like the reporter you have bought to publish trush here.
Mwambwa just come out in the open and declare your presidential candidacy interests than doing things aimed at propping up your image as a bririant pf official .
You invite people to make a curtesy call and pay cheap journalist to publish crap aimed at advertising yourself.
We know you to be anti Lungu. Go on undermining Lungu.
Ati Mwamba this, mwambwa that, we mbwawe.
Go ahead we are watching.
President Mwamba speaking from Pretoria, South Africa on bilateral issues. Ba PF mulibambuli.
So what are the people at the ministry of energy doing? Isn’t this guy trying to single source? Why can’t you just advertise and state your requirements. This is a challenge for our universities to come up with ideas, i’m sure UNZA and CBU have research departments though they are under funded. Lets not allow such companies to come to zed and rip us off.