Back to Index

BPRA to stage demonstration against ZESA
Bulawayo Progressive Residents Association (BPRA)
October 25, 2010

Bulawayo Progressive Residents Association (BPRA) has organised a protest march against the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) that will take place on Wednesday 27 October 2010 from 10am to 12pm. The march will begin at the large city hall and end at ZESA Western Region Offices at the corner of Fife Street and 10th Avenue, where a speech will be delivered by the BPRA chairperson, Mr Reason Ngwenya and a petition handed over to ZESA regional management.

The demonstration will be a peaceful one and the police have been notified.

Background

In August this year, the Competition and Tariff's Commission (CTC) made a ruling that ZESA should review its tariffs. Following the ruling, during the month of September 2010, BPRA held consultative meetings with residents of Bulawayo in all its 29 wards to inform them of the ruling and get their suggestions on a way forward. Bulawayo residents made it clear that they are dissatisfied and appalled with ZESA tariffs and poor service delivery. They argued that the tariffs are exorbitant in light of the fact that there are rampant power cuts almost on a daily basis. Furthermore, residents called for the parastatal to review its billing system as it is flawed, as evidenced by the unclear circumstances on which residents have accrued mammoth bills since the inception of the multi-currency system in early 2009. Residents suggested that ZESA should be taken to task to ensure that the commission's ruling is adhered to. They proposed demonstrations, legal action and a boycott of bill payments.

It is in this regard that BPRA is organising the demonstration, to give the residents of Bulawayo, the people that it represents, a platform to air their grievances and have their demands heard with regards to the issues of poor service delivery and unreasonable charges by the power utility. The demonstration is the first step of a series of actions that will be taken against ZESA until the power utility complies with the people's demands.

Key Demands

The residents of Bulawayo and BPRA demand that ZESA:

• Comply with the CTC ruling
• Charge reasonable tariffs
• Review its billing system
• Write off all existing debts accrued on the basis of a flawed billing system
• Prioritise service delivery over employee remuneration
• Compensate residents whose property was damaged by erratic power supply
• The end of corruption by the parastatal's employees

Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.

TOP