Alliance for Good Governance has called on Government to consider extending the electricity tariff hike to mining companies as well as the exported Electricity.
Alliance for Good Governance President Joseph Chileshe said ZESCO’s 75 per cent electricity tariff hike which has been approved by the Energy Regulation Board (ERB) is seemingly not going to affect mining companies and exported electricity.
“Mining companies and the exported electricity is where most electricity is used in our country and if these two are not going to be included in the tariff increment is it going to be very sad for the average Zambian because we will be bearing their costs”, Mr Chileshe said.
Chileshe added that he expects ZESCO to adhere to the order that was given to them by ERB concerning the staff tariff as contained in the press statement that was issued on the 10th of May 2017 by ERB.
In the statement issued by ERB the regulatory body instructed ZESCO to revise the staff tariff so that it is not passed on to customers by way of a tariff increase as the ERB has noted that the continued use of the staff tariff implies that the rest of the consumers are subsidizing the ZESCO staff tariff.
And the Governance activist McDonald Chipenzi has said it is saddening that ZESCO did not heed to the public’s cries not to increase the electricity tariff in the public consultations meeting that were held before the decision was made.
Chipenzi has since called on government to ensure that they should listen and take into consideration the views of citizens when hold public consultations in future and not these consultations should not be taken lightly.
“The public consultations by ZESCO were a good foundation but it is unfortunate that they only did so for formality’s sake and not because they had intentions of actually listening to what the Zambian people actually had to say”, he said.
In other words, ordinary citizens are the ones who will be subsidizing electricity exports and for mining companies…
Zesco a highly missmanaged company
And why would the mines not be affected by the increment when they make the most money and use the most power? Can somebody shade some light on this one please?!
mining companies buy in bulk like wholesale and most of them don’t buy through ZESCO but CEC, by the way, at 66 KV, or 220 KV its far cheaper to sell to mining companies and export because you don’t need maintain a series of transformer to bring voltage to 220v, from 380 KV and wooden polls all over the township . also most stuff in zesco are paid to work for these domestic and commercial people, if zesco was to sell only to mines you will end up with only 25% workforce
ZESCO’s mismanagement is not by chance, but by design. When our leaders appoint people to jobs which are not without ties to themselves as leaders, then we have failures. The fact that these jobs are not advertised globally to seek for the best candidates, and at the same time, these companies are used as dumping grounds for their lumpens or cadres, then we end up with what we do not want…inefficient, in-competitive companies and entities filled with people with low morale. Now to ask citizens to subsidize such ineptitude is asking too much. What we must do is to raise the levels of management by recruiting capable people, and getting rid of cadres from their ranks, and ensure realignment to good corporate governance leading to quarterly public reports to publicize their operational…
As long as the majority of the poor of the poorest are subjected to the opposite of Robin Wood the robber who used to rob from the rich and giving back to the poor or Zola who did the same as Robin Wood. The creation of jobs as cited by the Enery Minister is far fetched and lack of the ability to articulate fair and honest answers that even the villagers can understand. The lies and deception are becoming the language and culture of those in the corridors of power. The salaries are stagnant, rents are up by more than three folds, cost of living is beyond a common man’s income as well as disposible income.
Generally the current struggles by the citizens for economic survival as profound effect on the African set of families. Ministers do not feel any pain as their living standards…