ZESA sue Gideon Gono over $87,000 electricity bill

By Tatenda Dewa | Harare Bureau |

The Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) has slapped former Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor, Gideon Gono with an $87,000 debt recovery lawsuit.

The development comes hard on the heels of another High Court lawsuit by the Harare municipality over unpaid rates.

Gono is among prominent individuals who owe the power utility hundreds of thousands of dollars in unpaid electricity.

The bill accumulated at his once vibrant Lunar Chickens project in Borrowdale that President Robert Mugabe at one time toured.

Gono left RBZ in 2013 after 10 years at the helm and was considered one of Zimbabwe’s wealthiest individuals.

The City of Harare recently issued summons for Gono to pay up his rates bill amounting to $59,000.

The bill accrued from 2012 at a property in Borrowdale and includes water, sewage, refuse removal, property tax and other supplementary charges.

The former governor has acknowledged the Harare City Council bill but is yet to respond to the summons from the municipality.

ZESA is owed about a billion dollars by power users which include government departments, private entities, residents and prominent individuals.

Among the biggest debtors are Sable Chemicals Industries which ZESA insists owes it close to $7 million, Chinhoyi municipality (close to $6 million) and Zvishavane Town Council ($4, 600,000). Nehanda Radio