August 6, 2019//-On July 20, making a call on Zimbabwe’s biggest mobile phone network, Econet, was almost impossible as its services were down.
“Our generators failed to kick-in following a Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (Zesa) power outage, resulting in an automatic system shutdown to protect critical network operations centre equipment,” Econet said.
POWER RATIONING
Econet is just one of the businesses bearing the brunt of perhaps Zimbabwe’s worst power shortage in history, which has seen Zesa, the power utility, ration electricity supply for up to 18 hours daily. This is taking a toll on businesses which have to rely on diesel, a rare commodity with erratic pricing in Zimbabwe, for their operations. The price of diesel has jumped from $1.38 in January to about $7.50 at the end of July.
Econet, owned by billionaire Strive Masiyiwa, has warned that it may have to resort to “drastic measures” after incurring the cost of buying and ferrying two million litres per month of diesel to power its base stations. The company estimates it requires 12 million litres of diesel to provide uninterrupted service but the fuel is not readily available.
In May Zimbabwe significantly reduced electricity generation at its biggest hydro plant after water levels at Kariba Dam dropped significantly. The Kariba Power Station, which was already operating at half capacity, reduced generation to 358MW from 542MW.
