Zero ZESA !

Last week the weather turned cold, and windy. For a few days the wind blew very hard. Trees were uprooted and branches fell – onto ZESA power lines of course! ZESA stands for the ‘Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority’ but is now more commonly known as Zimbabwe Electricity Sometimes Available.

After the storms, the sometimes available joke was no longer a joke because, as some residents found, electricity was just ‘unavailable’. Too add insult to injury some residential areas still have no water as well. No electricity also means no boreholes – the pumps don’t work – so those people who fall back on their boreholes during times like these were also trapped.

Gas is not available in the country due to a lack of foreign currency so no one could resort to using their gas stoves (assuming they were extremely lucky and actually owned one!). So … no fridges, no stoves, no geysers, no kettle, no tv or radio, no clothing irons.

A friend of mine risked putting on an unironed shirt two weeks ago and is now suffering the consequences. This damp weather is ideal for ‘putsi’ flies which lay their eggs on damp clothing. Their eggs bury themselves into your skin and the maggots grow inside you . Painful, itchy and downright disgusting! Ironing clothes would normally kill any eggs.

Over the weekend, a local supermarket was forced to sell off all perishable items at two for the price of one because their freezers were defrosting.

In some areas the street traffic lights are still down making getting to and from work a nightmare. The wiring on many street lights is also broken.

Without electricity (lights, security alarms, electric fencing security gates) even the wealthier people who can afford this sort of security have been left completely vulnerable to the thieves who have been breaking into houses at night.

The black market rate of forex went through the roof last week in an all record high. The talk on the street is that ZESA is purchasing forex on the black market as the government cannot supply any. Supply and demand pushes rates sky high.

Will this vicious circle ever end?

Sokwanele note: here’s a link, for audiences unfamiliar with putsi flies, to an article that includes a lengthy description on what they’re like.

Technorati Tags: Zimbabwe, ZESA, electiricty, power supply, inflation, forex, foreign currency

This entry was posted by Noktula on Friday, March 10th, 2006 at 7:13 am. You can follow any comments on this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.