Suburban
The Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company (ZETDC) has warned power consumers who are illegally connected and consuming electricity for free that they face arrest and prosecution.The Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company (ZETDC) has warned power consumers who are illegally connected and consuming electricity for free that they face arrest and prosecution.
Suburban Reporter
In a statement this week, the power utility’s stakeholder relations department warned that such illegal power consumers have a week to ensure they approach the ZETDC so that they can be billed for the electricity they are currently enjoying for free.
“The Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company (ZETDC) has noted with concern increasing cases of consumers that are tampering with the electricity infrastructure and are consuming power without paying for the service.
“ZETDC advises that tampering with electricity infrastructure and theft of power is a criminal offence and such offenders risk being arrested and prosecuted. Consumers not paying for their consumption of electricity due to tampering or system failure, are advised to approach their nearest ZETDC Customer Service Centres (depots) on or before Friday 25th June 2021 to ensure that the system is restored to its original state or they risk arrest and prosecution,” said ZETDC in the statement.
The power utility said it was grateful to consumers who are paying for electricity timeously and encouraged all electricity consumers to pay for their consumption.
“Those consuming electricity for free and vandalising electricity infrastructure will face the brunt of the law. You valued cooperation is appreciated,” added ZETDC.
In a related matter, the ZETDC appealed to its customers to save energy during the winter season saying the saved energy will be utilised by the next customer thereby relieving pressure on the national electricity grid and in turn reducing incidences of load shedding.
The power company gave a number of tips which electricity consumers could make use of to save energy, in a separate statement also issued by its stakeholder relations department.
“ZETDC advises consumers to take the following steps to ensure that the electricity grid is not put under pressure:
Switch off lights in all rooms that are not being used
Switch off all non-essential appliances such as geysers, borehole pumps, microwaves, electric kettles, televisions, refrigerators, deep freezers, heaters and other every use electrical equipment during morning peak periods of 0600 hours to 1000 hours as well as during evening peak periods of 1800 hours to 2100 hours
Switch off stove plate five minutes before your cooking time. The stove plate retains enough heat to fully cook the food
Regulate your geysers to as near body temperature as possible
Match stove plates with the correct size of pots and pans to ensure maximum heat transfer from stove plate
Do not use stove to warm the house
Switch from incandescent light bulbs to energy saving (LED) bulbs
In the interest of safety, do not attempt to repair electrical faults on your own. Instead contact your nearest ZETDC Customer Service Centres (depots) for assistance.
The appeal by ZETDC comes at a time when the power utility has just started load shedding electricity with a number of consumers complaining that the power company had not warned them or provided a schedule of when their areas will be under load shedding so they could plan accordingly.
Consumers are also complaining that sometimes the load shedding goes for longer periods and the fact that some areas never experience load shedding while others are constantly switched off. Of late, the ZETDC has also been switching off a number of residential areas in Harare to carry out maintenance work and repairs.
