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I applaud Bulawayo residents for Zesa money clubs
Clifford Chitupa Mashiri
November 16, 2011

I have been following with interest the hardships that ordinary Zimbabweans are facing with electricity bills that I am even writing a book which includes Zesa. But please don-t rush me to finish it soon!

However, I was very impressed by the innovative money saving scheme mooted by the residents of Bulawayo (Bulawayo24, 16/11/11) who have reportedly formed money link clubs to help them reduce their electricity debts.

Their modest innovation which entails groups of 50 households making a US $5 contribution every week and US$35 being paid to accounts belonging to 10 households should be applauded as a community project that needs public support and encouragement.

The Bulawayo project reminds me of some of the brilliant ideas we exchanged with delegates who attended a small business workshop that I ran for ORAP on behalf of Speciss Training Services in the 1980s near Ascot Centre when I was a training consultant.

Although not yielding enough money to pay-off the huge Zesa bills, which for some households are as high as US$500, the community-s money link scheme has potential for success if its sponsors adapted the idea of the Grameen Bank to their situation.

According to Wikipedia, the Grameen Bank is a microfinance organisation and community development bank started in Bangladesh that makes small loans to the impoverished without requiring collateral.

The inspiring Grameen Bank is traceable to 1976 when Professor Muhammad Yunus, a Fullbright scholar at Vanderbilt University and Professor at the University of Chittagong launched a research project into the feasibility of lending to the rural poor.

Later, the Grameen Bank was transformed into an independent bank by government legislation, while the organisation and its founder, Muhammad Yunus were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006.

I don-t see why the good work started by the residents of Bulawayo should not be assisted by the inclusive government through training, development and project finance.

Equally, another idea I would like to share with the innovators of Bulawayo and hopefully emulated countrywide at some stage is for the residents to negotiate to do what we could call "work for power" whereby they would get their bills paid off through group work for Zesa such as cleaning offices, slashing grass, simple decorative (painting), digging trenches or filling up and some repair work.

I say so because I went to a farm school near Bromley, Harare for my Form 1 and worked on tobacco and maize fields for my tuition fees at the boarding school!

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