MINES, Energy and Water Development Minister Christopher Yaluma says Government will no longer subsidise power to mines from the new power generation plants as the country implement the cost reflective tariffs.
Mr Yaluma said the Government had engaged the mining sector and informed those responsible on the decision to charge cost reflective tariffs in order to share the current burden of the power deficit.
The Minister has also offered to resign if anyone has evidence suggesting the current power outages is not because of the reduced water levels in the Kariba Dam.
Mr Yaluma said during the Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation’s Sunday interview programme that he was ready to step down if anyone proved that the load shedding had nothing to do with reduced water levels.
He said the Government had been consistent and transparent in the manner it had handled the current situation.
Members of Parliament had been taken to the Kariba Dam to check and appreciate the situation.
Mr Yaluma however, charged that it was irresponsible to suggest that Zambia may have a power blackout by November this year due to the current load shedding.
This follows the warning from the Zambezi River Authority (ZRA) recently that the country risked being plunged into a total power blackout if nothing was done to cushion the reduced water levels.
He said if the country was plunged into darkness, then it meant that relevant institutions like the ZRA was irresponsible.
“I don’t see a total power blackout. Prophets of doom will say so but that was irresponsible statement from the ZRA and if we have a blackout then they are not perfuming,” he said.
Mr Yaluma assured that several power projects such as the one being done by Maamba Collieries, the Kafue Lower Hydro and the Itezhi-tezhi power project would soon end the current load shedding.
The projects were an indication that the government had always planned to ensure that necessary measures were in place to avert any catastrophe.
Apart from the ongoing project, the Government is promoting and implementing solar energy as well as importing power to ensure that the current load shedding is cushioned.
The countries in the region agreed last month that by 2019, they must ensure that they applied cost reflective tariffs in order to attract investment in the energy sector.
Mr Yaluma noted that the country was currently charging the lowest tariff of electricity in the region at 5.64 cents per kilowatts per hour while other countries like Uganda had already reached 16 cents.
Mines should be self sufficient and not dependent on Government for anything. It is no longer ZCCM, just ask HH.
It’s the other way around my dear….
Yaluma is the real Chipuba! Water levels cannot rise by November even if the rains start then. The rain water first has to fill up depleted aquifers before run-off goes into rivers. If this PFool’s story is true, then Zambians should wait until March 2016 to return to normalcy. That’s when floods happen along the Zambezi. And ZRA are likely correct that 100% blackouts will be the norm by November.
That was a very bad policy move. As a country we should have not even thought of it. What was the rationality or economic reason of subsidizing power to privately owned dollar milling ventures in the mining sector when we know that thee mining houses make billions of US dollars in profit which they externalize? How can poor people be made to subsidize foreign mines? It is criminal for Africa to be signing such investment deals.
President Lungu on the side of the people should expeditiously sign a reversal of such predatory deals. These are terrible deals negotiated and signed by Nawakwi as she did on the Carlington maize deals.
It is time for the poor man’s President H.E ECL whom the masses have constitutionally entrusted with the executive powers in Nkwazi to correct this legacy of injustice. If a poor man President does not correct such vices, there will be no hope for Zambia. We cannot even dare risk our country with certified collaborators among Plutocrats. Effects of the toxic Ramcoz-Binani mining deals remain oozing fresh blood among our living kopala families who lost it all to collaborators. The spirit victims such as Cameron Pwele, MP and thousands other victims of plunders are challenges the country to sober up and never honor crooks that ruined them into early graves.
Not to mention that these mining giants have huge tax concessions and exemptions!!! And additionally, they are allowed to externalize all their profits!!! We really know how to shoot ourselves in the foot don’t we?
So the Zambian Tax payer was paying the mines to pay to return taxes? Incredible!
Those were the incentives given to them by the then privatization specialist. No mentioning of names
HH
imwe i cant reach the zambian watchdog for weeks now. is everything alright with them?
Use Opera Mini browser. PFools are blocking them.
This is the policy PF should have reversed the first day they entered into office than rash to grab ZAMTEL and Lift RB’s immunity and hold a whole host of senseless commission of inquiries. So sleepy and too slow to act.
Yaluma is either being deceitful, or he is lying, or he is simply so dull he does not understand how Kariba operates,
The water levels in the lake do not depend only on the amount of rainfall. They are MANAGED!
This load shedding is a direct result of huge incompetence in how the water is handled, and a lack of attention by Government.
Resign you F00L, it is absolutely clear that you have failed to do your job completely!
Everyone except Zesco knew that the rainfall was low last season. Zesco kept emptying Kariba to generate power for export. Even Upstream the Lozis cancelled Kuomboka due to low rains.
It was a blunder to merge Zesco & Kariba North Bank Ltd. KNBL was very efficient. Now I guess it’s full of MMD-PF cadres like Zesco.
@maloza
How was rainfall low last season when January 2015 Presidential bye elections winner could not be declared within the stipulated 48 hours due to bad weather caused by heavy rainfall? Yet Nigeria which is rainier & 14 times more populous (13m to 182m people) & had 20 times more voters (1.7m to 34m voters) than Zambia declared the winner within the stipulated 48 hours!
Why did we contruct the Kariba Dam & Victoria falls bridge? Is it not to conserve water & hold back water in times of need respectively?
Just to politicize the matter a bit more, I’ve always found it amusing that during campaigns politicians are able to reach the remote places. But when tallying of votes begins, then bad weather and bad roads become excuses for delaying results….
Well done Hon Minister,
A mine MUST run as a viable business entity. The largest copper producing country in the world, Chile, runs the mines on that formula. Cheap power led to inefficiency. With realistic power tariff, they will be compelled to be innovative and resourceful. Once again…WELL DONE!
“Yaluma says Government will no longer subsidise power to mines from the NEW power generation plants as the country implement the cost reflective tariffs.”
That statement in itself does not make sense which new plants..how much will any new plant produce as compared to the old? How about the power you are importing? How about the Developmental Agreements in place? This silly empty tin is trying to hide his lies in jargon.
Zambians Wake up!!
Bwana Minister there are operation rule curves for operating reservoirs like Kariba and Itezhitezhi Dams. These depend on the inflow to the reservoir, evaporation, the reservoir volume and the outflow. If the inflow is low due to drought then you need to regulate your outflow to last you until the next rainy season even if it means generating less power using this curve. ZESCO should have a Hydrological Department to monitor this as it appears to have been dismantled. You can easily anticipate a drought through daily measurements of water flow. What was observed was that ZESCO was generating power at full blast until sometime in May. If a 50 kg bag of mealie meal should last you a month it should do so and be told by your children that “Daddy the mealie meal is finished before the month…
@Senior Engineer
Bwana Minister Yaluma has obviously never heard of Operation Rule Curves before.
That is why he can make such stupid statements on public media.
A real USELESS MINISTER!
The problem is simple when the Chinese put in the extra turbines they didn’t calculate the water usage so its like you you have a tin can full of water the more holes you have in it the faster the water goes out, this is why kariba is empty and cabora basa is still producing power because they didn’t add extra turbines. there.
the Chinese are to blame. zesco should have done its homework.
During KK’s time. Francis Kaunda, KK’s blue eyed boy, was so powerful that some of us actually thought he was related to KK and resisted any efforts by ZESCO to raise the tariffs. Perhaps it did not matter then since they were both government institutions. ERB conducted a study on electricity supply which showed that the tariffs were not cost reflective and that the domestic consumer was actually paying more than the mines. What has changed? MMD did not implement it and PF appears now to have dusted off the study report and now wants to implement it. If there will be any good to have come out of the drought is for the mines to start paying cost reflective tariffs.
HH the UPND leader was A key personnel in the privatising of our industries and the mines and he is the who structured these poor programs Zambia has found itself in. And today he wants to cheat the unsuspecting Zambian that the economic program we are facing are a failure by PF. NO, it’s HH and his team, the Nawakwi who sold a song. The PF publicity department must come out strongly and educate the masses especially the youth who may not know how HH and Nawakwi sold the country for their personal gains.
These people should never be trusted with power because they don’t care for the Zambian. Umulandu tabula.
PF is working very hard to rectify things.
You should be ashamed of your self, blaming HH. the man worked on privatisation some 20yrs ago, under instructions, you mean you are all that dull to not correct something done that long ago???. That’s like blaming the UK for all our problems.
@Neutral. The Victoria Falls Bridge was constructed by Cecil Rhodes to connect the two Rhodesias on its way to Cairo and it proved to be too ambitious and never reached Cairo. The Victoria Falls Power Station generates power using whatever water is in the river and it is, therefore, called a run-of-the-river scheme.
And what has this dull Minister have to say about the other run-of-the-river plan that was identified in 1972?
If these clueless PF clowns had pulled their finger out when they came to power it could be generating electricity right now.
Batoka Gorge is the answer, but Sata was too busy renaming airports and Lungu is still sleeping off his Jamesoni hangover!
The problem is simple when the Chinese put in the extra turbines they didn’t calculate the water usage so its like you you have a tin can full of water the more holes you have in it the faster the water goes out, this is why kariba is empty and cabora basa is still producing power because they didn’t add extra turbines. there.
the Chinese are to blame. zesco should have done its homework.
What people don’t understand is that the mines and govt had signed developmental agreements with hidden clauses like keeping tax, fuel, energy as it is at is/ unchanged so empty tins like Yaluma can politick all day to the ill informed and get praises but it wont change anything.
We Mbwa wee ne Mbwa mbiyo shale signer! They put us between a hard place and a rock for decades and now that PF is trying it’s best to rework these monistrosity of contracts you blame then? If you are near me, I would give you one shubarai and you shit!
Bwana minister are you telling us the Vic falls is dry, because all its water runs into kariba dam. From what we can see the water running off the falls is normal. Also how come the caborabasa dam down stream is not empty???.
The problem is simple when the Chinese put in the extra turbines they didn’t calculate the water usage so its like you you have a tin can full of water the more holes you have in it the faster the water goes out, this is why kariba is empty and cabora basa is still producing power because they didn’t add extra turbines. there.
the Chinese are to blame. zesco should have done its homework.
Ken, there is no more holes in the dam. The number of gates remains the same. Maybe the extra turbines need more water
Patrick sorry to say that you are dull
If you are not more duller can you answer my questions then??? Let’s see how clever you are.
Finally this comes after 4 years of government! Now we will see if the mines will threaten to pull out, refer you to their contracts with GRZ, and you will back down
Ati “ZRA is not perfuming” kikikiki
Mishanga Boy, the issue of power is not a laughing matter and alot of the technocrats will lose their nice paying jobs at Zambezi River Authority and ZESCO before this is over unless they start thinking hard about mitigating measures.
@Mishanga Boy
Maybe he meant it! To cover up the rotten stink coming from ZRA!
Total PF incompetence. I smell a RAT. A dead rotten stinking RAT.
Is that what Yaluma is trying to hide?
Comment: When your tummy is full you forget hunger. We were having real black outs some time back and things were becoming good only nature to catch us hands down. You can not control nature pls lets post facts. Who can’t see the eye of a needle? If we are all learned then lets face facts
With this crop of leaders, Zambia`s economy is in level 9 emergency; an intensive care situation; a sinking titanic and the pilot is asleep, high on Jamerson
In Jan ’15 there was an extension of voting in some areas due to floods. Wher was the water flowing to to cause drought this early?
Mutale Boobs wanji paya kunseko ati “where was the water flowing to cause drought this early?”