Load shedding has made an ominous return. Zimbabweans were spared the brunt of ZESA's glaringly obvious incompetence over the past years. Unfortunately, the national power utility has, as a result of both planned and unplanned maintenance, been forced to implement a series of rolling rotational cuts, much to the frustration of citizens and the economy at large.
Zesa Holdings has reduced average power output at anchor power station, Kariba South by 5.3 percent to 445 megawatt after the Zambezi River Authority (ZRA) cut the water allocation for electricity generation by 5.3 percent from 38 billion cubic metres to 36 billion cubic metres.
What is load shedding?
To understand the daily load shedding schedule and its ever-present irregularities, one needs to understand why load shedding occurs in the first place. It's no secret that ZESA is in the grips of an operational and financial crisis. The fundamental causes of ZESA's failures are well documented and include elements of corruption, mismanagement and disastrous maintenance programmes.