Ruling United Party for National Development (UPND) Chairman for Labour and Social Security Godfrey Beene has asked Zambians to adopt alternative sources of power as Zesco Limited grapples with the challenge of electricity generation that has resulted in load shedding.

Mr. Beene said Zambians should familiarize themselves with solar energy as the New Dawn Government tackle the challenge of insufficient power generation that has culminated into prolonged hours of load shedding.

He said complaining and pointing fingers at who is to blame over reduced electricity generation will not increase manufacturing or production.

Mr. Beene admitted that the current shortage of power is an unfortunate situation.

As Zambia experiences reduced electricity generation and supply, our attention is drawn to the plight of both workers and their employers who depend on Zesco power to produce goods and services. It is indisputable that we have found ourselves in an unfortunate situation. We also sympathise with self-employed businessmen and women who depend on electricity to produce their goods and services such as salon owners, barbers, restaurant owners, metal fabricators, et cetera. Rest assured that your government and your president Mr Hakainde Hichilema are doing everything possible to ensure this shortage of electricity which has, unfortunately, become almost an annual ceremony, is a thing of the past,” Mr. Beene said.

He said businessmen and women who can afford a mix of energy sources should be innovative amid power generation challenges.

“Our president cares, and that is why he visited Maamba Collieries Limited yesterday to go and ensure a changed routine maintenance schedule of equipment at the plant. In the same vein, he went to the Kariba Dam to see for himself the challenges the Zambezi River Authority and Zesco are facing with regards to power generation. We would like to encourage businessmen and women who can afford a mix of energy sources to adopt the innovations so that they are not negatively affected in their businesses in the short run. Those who can afford generators should acquaint themselves with the technology.

Equally, Zambians should familiarise themselves with solar energy,” Mr. Beene said.

“We know it is difficult to abruptly change from hydropower to other energy technologies but this is a changing world. We have fixed phones but now can also carry phones in our pockets. We have television sets at home but now can also watch on our smart phones. We must find solutions to the present challenge of electricity shortage. Complaining and pointing fingers at who is to blame will not increase manufacturing or production. But as we embark on this journey, we encourage employers and their workers to read the Employment Code Act of 2019. Section 74 is very specific on working hours. All workers are expected to put in eight hours of work starting on any day or hour. Those asked to work a little more should not exceed 48 hours per week unless it is paid for overtime,” he said.

Meanwhile, Mr. Beene has reminded Zesco Limited to stick to their load-shedding schedule which has been split into two phases of six-hour outages.

“That is what labour laws stipulate. We, therefore, urge Zesco to stick to their load-shedding schedule which has been split into two six-hour outages. This should enable employers to plan their workers’ shifts. There is no need for employers to have all workers at the same time when they perform different roles at their places of work. Why should all workers report at the same time when the duties of some of them only begin much later in the day? Our emphasis is for employers to encourage quality productivity in the six hours Zesco is allocating. Since labour laws demand eight hours of work, the first hour can be used for preparation and then six hours for efficient production. Then the eighth hour can be used for knocking off from work. We appeal to union leaders to educate their members that eight hours of work does not mean from 08:00 hours to 17:00 hours. It is from any hour and any day. Let us remain productive as we share the available electricity. We cannot have what we do not have. We do not have adequate power supply at the moment,” Mr. Beene said.

Meanwhile, Copperbelt-based business executive Mellbin Simangolwa said President Hakainde Hichilema has shown leadership at a time when the country is facing a power challenge.

President Hichilema recently visited Kariba Dam and Maamba Collieries to check on the extent of the problem at the two operations.

President Hichilema has since advised Zesco management to segment load management into six-hours as opposed to straight 12:00 hours.

“There’s no perfect country, we will always have problems but we are comforted that now we have a leader who is able to take responsibility and give hope to the citizens. This power crisis is a result of failure by the government over the years to expand the existing energy infrastructure and also invest in other alternative energy sources. You can’t heap the blame on HH; even if he promised to end load shedding he can’t do that overnight. It’s gratifying to see ‘political will’ from the President and clearly we can see that we are headed in the right direction. It’s very gratifying to have a leader who takes responsibility and responds to the cries of the people with urgency,” Rev. Simangolwa said.

ZESCO Board Chairperson Vickson Ncube has taken the blame for the loadshedding that the country is currently faced with.

Mr Ncube stated that if he had looked at the flow of the waters he would have been able to anticipate that when the country hits a certain time, the water levels will not be able to generate electricity to full capacity, adding that he would have also looked for solutions in the neighbouring countries with power as this would have enabled him to mobilise solutions to the potential problem.

“With Loadshedding there’s a failure on the natural part and the human part, on the natural part I can’t explain it, I will just mention that our hydrology is poor, our water reservoirs are also poor, no matter what we do, we have no control over the natural part, and on the human part we should have anticipated on that because in leadership theres anticipation of a problem so that when it comes, you are ready to face it, so, to that extent I shall take responsibility by stating that we failed the nation as ZESCO and as Board Chairman I take the full responsibility, I should have been better informed, and aware by measuring my hydrologies, looked at the projection and see at what point, we are going to hit a crisis, and I should have started fining for inteverning measures so that by the time the crisis comes, am ready to meet it and I wasn’t,” he explained

In responding as to whether he misinformed the President who assured that load shedding is the thing of the past, Mr Ncube admitted to have misinformed the Head of State because if he had given him correct information, the President wouldn’t have made such a statement, adding that the President does not seat at ZESCO everyday, neither does he seat on the ZESCO Board, but he rather gets information through ZESCO and if they give him information and he then uses the same information to inform the nation, then as ZESCO they must take the blame.

“The problem then comes in sometimes when you become arithmetical and not practical, you look at your generation capacity, I look at all our electricity generation stations, Kariba with 1080 megawatts, Kafue Gorge ABOUT 900 megawatts, Kafue Gorge lower with now seating at 600 megawatts, Itezhitezhi seating at 120 megawatts, Maamba with 300 megawatts and many other smaller power stations, and I look at my maximum demand of 2200 megawatts from 3400 megawatts, but am not looking at the underlying factors that will affect the generation, am just looking at the demand versus the capacity but when the circumstances in the generation change, I am blind sided, so that is where the problem comes in,” he disclosed

He further disclosed that there is a bigger problem that might be faced if eversive measures are not taken right now, explaining that if any of the machines sucks water combined with air they will be messed up, and this will that the situation can only be corrected in about 18 months which will be dependant on the damage caused, as a power utility company putting in place immediate measures, four machines where shut down and only remained with two operating even though the two machines are not operating to full capacity, where instead of generating about 180 megawatts, they all generating about 125 megawatts.

He admitted that the Patriotic Front – PF curbed load shedding completely but it has come back because of the mismanagement plus nature (low water levels at Kariba Dam) and he has apologized for this.

The ZESCO Board Chairperson, noted that the power utility company still exports power to neighboring countries because they want to cushion a huge debt which is now amounting to US$3.3 billion.

Mr Ncube has since assured the nation that load shedding is likely to end in March if things are put in place accordingly.

Citizens First President Harry Kalaba says the power disruption that the country is currently facing has brought alot of misery to the people of Zambia especially for those who run and manage small businesses.

Mr Kalaba added that the power cuts have caused doom for those run small businesses such as barbershops, salons, welders, butcheries, and many other small businesses, as they are the ones who are heavily affected.

He noted that this load shedding is now affecting big companies and shopping malls as they have not be spared and as result of that business has become very slow which also hinges on the economy thus, leading to the economic growth being stagnant as there are not incentives happening in the economic which is also affecting whole enterprise of living in the country.

Mr Kalaba mentioned that the justification by the power utility company ZESCO that there is poor rainfall pattern that has caused low water levels at the Kariba North Bank, is not true because the country has not experienced any draught in last three years and the only challenge was in 2017 to 2018 when the country experienced a draught, so, ZESCO cannot just say that load shedding is because of the rains.

“We are of the view that, the challenge has been because our colleagues in government now managed to get rid of everybody that was working at ZESCO and brought in their own people, those who had the plan to push the agenda forward to end loadshedding are not there, and institutional memories were erase in the process, so this is why we are where we are today and we are shooting in the dark,” he said

He stated that ZESCO is not operating the way it should be, adding that a quasi government institution cannot be operating in the manner that ZESCO is operating now because Zambia is a country that should be leading a way now when managing parastatal companies such as ZESCO, but it’s a pity especially that they had to ask some people to leave and employed many more people who are affiliated to the United Party for National Development – UPND but its not the way things should be.

He said that the President taking a tour at Maamba Collieries and Kariba Dam, does not offer any solutions because the solution is about being focused by understanding the electricity management in the country.

Mr Kalaba said that the seeing the splitting of the 12 hours of load shedding as a relief is quite shocking because the Minister of Energy had informed the nation that ZESCO had reduced the number of megawatts there where exporting outside the country and as a result of this reduction, the Citizens First Party expected that the number of loadshedding hours will also be reduced.

“There was an outcry in the country where all of us in the opposition and ordinary citizens where saying the 12 hours of load shedding is too much, stop exporting or at the least reduce the number of megawatts being exported and the government heard this call that was made by Citizens First and announced that they have reduced on exports but they have not told us how many megawatts that they have reduced in terms of exporting, they haven’t also told us the countries which will be affected because of this reduction, and they have not told us as to whether the reductio in the exporting of those megawatts is going to have an effect on the number of hours that we are currently facing for load shedding, so we are shocked that instead of telling us that they have reduced on the load shedding hours, they are saying that they are staggering, but is that how you do things when you reduce on the number of exports of megawatts,” Mr Kalaba explained