|
Back to Index
Women
of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) to launch 'Power to Poor People' campaign
Women
of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA)
May 10, 2011
Victory in Tredgold
Magistrates Court and a yellow card for ZETDC at noon, 12'oclock
today Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) will launch their 'Power to
Poor People' Campaign by a protest
to the Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company
(ZETDC) offices in Bulawayo. Along with a protest launch, the campaign
will feature the signing of a petition dubbed the 'Anti Abuse of
Power' Petition; completing of a time sheet of power cuts and the
delivering of a 'yellow card' to the company. WOZA has campaigned
for affordable and available electricity since 2006 with its 'power
to the people' campaigns. It is also hoped that today's protest
will put pressure on the company to stop disconnections until they
are able to deliver a better service to their customers.
The hundreds
of members who will march have already participated in the completion
of power cut times sheet in May and September last year. And in
the next 2 weeks will once again complete a record whilst going
door to door to obtaining signatures for the 'anti abuse of power'
petition. Once the petition signing is complete the petitions will
be taken to the Anti corruption and Monopolies Committee of Parliament
to lobby mainly for a prepaid system of electricity.
Our demands
are;
- Stop cheating
fixed meter consumers, we demand prepaid meters.
- Please provide
cheaper firewood, candles and matches, we do not want to destroy
our environment by cutting down trees.
- We are tired
of 18 hour power cuts -provide proper timetables of load shedding.
- Urgently
put in place a proper and transparent billing system. Stop sending
metered consumer's estimates, send ACTUAL bills.
- Create a
smoother process of customer's claims for compensation.
- Review recruitment
policy and bring salaries to decent levels with our current economic
record. Professionalise staff performance and honesty. No more
luxury cars we need transformers.
- We will
record the exact hours we receive electricity for the last 2 weeks
of May while we get petition signatures which we will take to
Parliament and demand they review your monopoly and poor service.
You have cheated us for long enough, after we submit our demand
to parliament we will organise a RED card Campaign. Be warned
POWER TO THE POOR - ZERO service ZERO bill. HOKOYO!!
Last year, the
response of the company was to have their security arrest WOZA leaders
who spent 6 days in custody, 3 of those days the Independence Holiday.
For last year's Harare protest go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8hEur0ceQ0.
Also watch rough footage of the Valentines' Day protest http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2-PrFvmwQs
At 11am yesterday
200 Chitungwiza members marched
to their City Council officers to demand water; they have had not
water for over 2 to 3 weeks.
Ten members
arrested in three batches from 28 February to 7 March who were tortured
in custody had charges withdrawn by the state at 8:30 am this morning
when they appeared at the Bulawayo Magistrates Court. The state
decided to respect a Supreme
Court ruling obtained by Williams and Mahlangu. The ruling granted
that the two women had been wrongfully arrested and detained and,
as a result, had their rights and fundamental freedoms violated.
The full bench of the Supreme Court also found that the state had
failed to protect the activists from this abuse. The two had spent
3 weeks in Mlondolozi Prison after a peaceful protest.
Yellow card
link - http://wozazimbabwe.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/yellow-card-zesa-2011.pdf.
Petition
link - http://wozazimbabwe.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/may-2011-petition1.pdf.
Time sheet
link - http://wozazimbabwe.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/power-cut-time-sheet1.pdf.
Visit
the WOZA fact
sheet
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
|
