A BITTER war is raging between the Bulawayo City Council (BCC) and the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (Zesa) over the Bulawayo Power Station with the former accusing the latter of not compensating them and further not honouring their promise of yearly royalties.
This comes amid revelations that urban councils from around the country are set to petition the Ministry of Energy and Power Development for the effective return of all power stations to the local authorities.
According to the latest council minutes the local authority had since ordered an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the takeover of the power station and why the power utility had stopped paying annual royalties to the council."The financial director explained that Zesa did not compensate council for the takeover of Bulawayo Power Station, however, records showed that at one point council was receiving royalties but Zesa had unilaterally discontinued this, the matter is now being investigated," reads part of the minutes.
Contacted for comment, Bulawayo Mayor, Councillor Thaba Moyo said as councillors, they have been shocked to learn that the power utility had not compensated them for the station and had further breached the promise to pay them annual royalties.He said they had thus ordered the financial director, Mr Kimpton Ndimande, to investigate the matter further and give them a more detailed report so that they could come up with strategies to ensure that Zesa fulfils its obligations.
"We honestly did not know that these guys did not pay even a cent for our power station and they further decided on their own to stop giving us the annual royalties. Something is definitely wrong here that's why we ordered an investigation to be conducted for us to get the finer details, besides that is our power station at the end of the day and we find it unfair for them to take it from us just like that," said Clr Moyo.
Zesa public relations officer, Mr Fullard Gwasira, said he needed more time to look into the issue so as to get the finer details.
Meanwhile, Clr Thaba Moyo, who is also the first vice-president of the Urban Councils Association of Zimbabwe (Ucaz) hinted that plans were now in full swing to force the power utility to hand back the operation of power stations in towns and cities as they were clearly failing to run them.
"With or without their compensation, we have to take back our power station, we have engaged other urban councils who were affected by the takeover and are now in the process of petitioning the minister and Zesa to give us back what rightfully belongs to us.
"What we noted is that as Bulawayo we can't do it alone and need other local authorities to assist us. To be frank Zesa is just failing to manage the station, if it was under us it was going to be simple as it will be directly under our nose and we know what it needs," said Clr Moyo.
BCC has on a number of occasions insisted that the power station had to be returned to the local authority so as to improve the power situation in the city.
Last month, the Harare City Council also demanded the Harare Power Station back from Zesa. The city council accused the power utility of running down the power station. The Bulawayo thermal power station became part of Zesa in 1987 after the amalgamation of all the local authority electricity undertakings.The council's position on the station hardened early this year after Zesa disconnected electricity at Tower Block and the city council over a debt of more than $20 million.
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