Zimbabwe’s power group owes $18 million to Eskom

• 7 years ago (2016-11-24)
• David Flin

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The Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) has warned that the financial crisis in the country could result in its foreign electricity suppliers ceasing to provide supplies. ZESA has suffered from foreign currency shortages and liquidity problems for key payments.

Eskom supplies 300 MW at a cost of nearly $10.5 million monthly, while Mozambique’s Hydro Cahora Bassa (HCB) exports $2.6 million of electricity monthly to Zimbabwe.

John Chifamba, Chief Executive of ZESA, has warned that the country may not be able to meet its debt obligations to suppliers as it did not have a steady supply of foreign currency. He said: “As we stand now, we are in serious arrears on both accounts, Eskom of South Africa and HCB of Mozambique.”

Eskom is owed about $18 million, while HCB is owed about $9 million. ZESA warned that if it did not speedily access foreign currency, it would be forced to institute “massive load-shedding.”