Powertel leaves consumers in the lurch

By Happiness Zengeni and Golden Sibanda

HARARE – Pressure is mounting on the Ministry of Energy and Power Development to probe alleged irregularities in the ZESA Holdings tender for prepaid electricity tokens amid claims the system used by its unit, Powertel, is failing to cope with demand.

Powertel was appointed by the ministry as the sole aggregator for the Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company’s prepaid electricity tokens, but the arrangement is failing to adequately address the needs of consumers.

Long queues in ZETDC banking halls and other appointed private vendors are often the order of the day while more inconveniences for users of electricity stem from the fact that purchase of the tokens is restricted to working or business hours. The system is often times off-line at selected retail outlets while consumers are set to suffer more inconvenience when maintenance work is done.

Yesterday ZESA put out a notice that there would be an interruption of the prepayment vending system from today at 1000hrs to 1000hrs tomorrow in order to carry out maintenance work.

As such, fears abound that delays in the implementation of an efficient prepaid electricity vending model could create risks that might jeopardise revenue collection for ZETDC which desperately needs the funds to provide a key commodity.

IT experts have questioned the logic of having a single aggregator for prepaid electricity at a time the Powertel system is failing to cope with customer demands while creating a crisis in terms of access to power each time the system goes down.

“We believe that some of the impending risks faced by ZETDC include, but are not limited to bypassing electricity meters leading to revenue leakage . . . and customers continually seeking loopholes to exploit.

“In that regard, it is rather shortsighted of ZETDC to continue installing prepaid meters without implementing corresponding related projects to ensure demand for prepaid electricity tokens is addressed,” said a source that requested anonymity.

A snap survey revealed that the OK Supermarkets system was down for the better part of the weekend, while Athienitis Spar (Fife Avenue) was offline.

Powertel does not have a wide distribution network and its sales are restricted to business hours. ZESA, on the other hand, recently stopped selling electricity tokens during the weekend. This together with constant technical faults deprives customers of electricity.

Other sources said because experts spent time and resources on solutions and preparations for implementing alternative vending models, frustrating them through the Powertel monopoly could worsen the wave of brain drain in the country.

Bidders participated in earlier tenders to become aggregators but the tender was cancelled under unclear circumstances until Powertel was appointed by the ministry of Energy and Power Development as the sole aggregator.

The Ministry of Energy and Power Development is on record as insisting that Government had made Powertel the sole authorised aggregator for the prepaid electricity tokens with mostly its institutions allowed to be engaged as vendors. The Herald