Zesa faces massive brain drain

ZESA Holdings has revealed that it faces the risk of skills flight as employees seek better paying job opportunities elsewhere, even across the country’s borders, a top management official said.

Zesa Holdings deputy chairperson Tsitsi Makova said the parastatal had not been spared the harsh economic climate, where salaries of employees in the public and private sectors were being eroded as the local currency slides.

Makova made the remarks during a Zesa risk management awards ceremony held in the capital on Monday to honour staff which continues to protect and preserve the parastatal’s assets.

“The current economic climate has negatively affected conditions of service for employees and skills flight is one of the major risks faced by the Zesa group. Every employee within the Zesa group is critical in ensuring provision of power to the nation,” Makova said.

“We as the board and management are cognisant of the fact that the salaries have been eroded and reduced to low values due to the unstable economic conditions and we are looking into ensuring that employees’ conditions of service are improved.

“Employees are, therefore, urged to remain patient while the issues are resolved. In addition to this, employees should desist from corrupt activities which seem to be on the increase due to the harsh economic environment.”

Recently, Zesa workers gave notice to embark on an industrial action in protest over poor salaries. The power utility offered its workers a salary increase to avert the strike action as negotiations continued.

“Zesa has embarked on a number of initiatives to improve the efficiency of the company. These include but are not limited to rebundling, retooling and resourcing, grid refurbishment, training and development, redeployment of senior members of staff and increased visibility of Stakeholder Relations on social media platforms,” Makova added..

The Zesa risk management awards were sponsored by Cell Insurance Group and its Reinsurance partners.

They were suspended last year at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. This year, they were held under the theme Powering the Nation to 2030 through Risk Management.

Zesa said the adjudication process for the awards included visiting depots, substations and power stations in order to ascertain how staff maintained solid systems on risk management processes and practices.