PLANNED ZESCO TARIFF HIKE COUNTER-PRODUCTIVE

Dear Editor.

THE planned 23 percent power tariff increase for 2024 is hurtful and counter-productive for obvious reasons. For me it is madness of the worst form and could not have come from any fresh brains.

Zesco power tariffs are already out of reach of many struggling Zambians now facing starving owing to visionless men and women running our government today.

This is another perfect example of poor management at Zesco today which works only by raising the cost of its services. I wish to tell Zesco today that in view of the current load shedding, it would be daylight robbery to raise its tariffs as its services will be highly compromised.

My main concern is the injury it will have especially to the SMEs which even in the mighty USA are the engines of the economy. Ours is already overheating. This planned increase is a total disgrace and only confirms the notion that when an organisation develops a habit of often increasing cost of services it is a pure sign of laziness and mismanagement. I say so because instead of rushing to increase tariffs Zesco should first have rushed to connect thousands of people on its waiting list to be connected by a way of a promotion exercise.

In that way, it would have managed to increase its customer base and easily rake in honestly millions into its coffers. I hear the number of people seeking electricity is swelling by the day but our Zesco cannot be bothered. Can you imagine Zesco even has the guts to quote applicants in rural parts like in Chongwe K23, 000 each to be connected. What madness! While still on Zesco, please someone should advise this directionless firm to stop charging people for its poles if it cannot refund them later.

This practice of making customers buy poles before they can be connected is unheard of anywhere in the world.

When Zesco was in the hands of competent management teams in the past this selling of poles was never heard of. So, if I am unluckily be forced to buy power poles for Zesco, I will have no option but to burn or cut them down during load-shedding in case I change my location.

For now, I think Zesco is in dire need of a major operation to bring about efficiency in its service delivery to the nation.