POWERLESS & CLUELESS: Residents fume over electricity outage

Mthokozisi Ncube

RESIDENTS in parts of Njube, Luveve, Gwabalanda, Mzilikazi and Lobengula have been left fuming after spending Wednesday and Thursday without electricity, with some saying they only learnt about the fault through a Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company (ZETDC) update, late on Thursday.

The residents said power went off in the morning on Wednesday August 26, disrupting businesses, household chores and food storage, while they remained in the dark about what had caused the outage.

ZETDC’s latest notice, issued on Thursday, said the affected areas were experiencing a cable fault and that repair work was in progress. The power utility said it expected electricity to be restored on Thursday.

However, frustrated residents said the communication gap was almost as painful as the outage itself.

“We woke up without power on Wednesday and nobody told us what was happening. We had to rely on rumours because we did not know whether it was load-shedding or a fault,” said Thabani Tshuma of Gwabalanda Suburb.

Another resident said the prolonged outage was becoming a nightmare for families.

“It is difficult to plan anything when you do not know when electricity will return. We have children who need to study and food that needs refrigeration. We need proper communication from ZETDC,” the resident said.

A resident from Njube said businesses were also taking a knock.

“Some of us run small businesses from home. When there is no electricity, there is no business. What makes it worse is not knowing whether the power will return in an hour or tomorrow,” the resident said.

ZETDC said its teams were working “to ensure full restoration of service in the shortest possible time”.

The utility also warned customers to treat all circuits as live because power could be restored without notice.

Residents said they hoped the promised restoration would end their electricity misery and called for quicker, clearer updates whenever faults occur.