Zimbabwe’s mining companies and other businesses are not happy ith ZESA’s new 12 cents per unit tariff as they say it is not sustainable and affordable. This come after the government approved ZESA’s latest tariff hike. According to mining companies the hike will make it impossible to reach their target of becoming a U$12 billion dollar mining industry. ZESA however, has scoffed at these complaints saying the tariff was necessary for ZESA to become viable.

Electricity supply challenges are sitting on top of the challenges that the miners are facing.

The mining industry believes that electricity charges are very expensive; they want them to be lowered from the current US$0.1221/kWh to US$0.1026/kWh.

But the challenge is for us to find what is needed to correct the anomaly.

What I can tell you is that we are behind in terms of refurbishment and rehabilitation of the network to the tune of about US$2bn.

This is actually occasioned by the fact that for the past 20 years we have been operating below cost.

… let’s accept the tariff for us to have a better future in Zimbabwe and achieve our targets.
ZESA’s Managing Director Howard Choga

An expensive country

While ZESA does have a point the mining companies also have a point. High ZESA tariffs plus high taxes makes Zimbabwe an expensive business destination. It will mean the mining companies will be making razor thin profits and will find it hard to compete at both the regional and international stages. They will also find it hard to