Stiffer penalties for electricity vandals
CABINET has approved the amendment of the Electricity Act to introduce a mandatory jail term of up to 30 years for those found guilty of vandalising or tampering with electricity infrastructure amid indications that Zesa has so far lost over 2 100 transformers due to theft and vandalism across the country.
About 927 transformers were vandalised in the Northern Region, 625 in the Western Region, 525 in Harare Region and 94 in the Eastern Region.
Presenting this year’s first decision Cabinet matrix in Harare on Tuesday, Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Minister Monica Mutsvangwa said besides deterrent penalties, Government would also ensure that adequate surveillance machinery is put in place to apprehend such offenders.
This includes the installation of electronic gadgets to detect the criminals. The country has been losing a lot of electricity powering equipment to vandalism, while cases of transformer oil thefts have been on the rise.
Lives have been lost while some criminals were trying to steal transformer oil and electricity transmission cables.
“Cabinet received a report from the Minister of Energy and Power Development, Minister Fortune Chasi, on the principles for the proposed amendment of the Electricity Act, Chapter 13.19 which seeks to introduce stiffer penalties on crimes related to electricity theft, destruction or tampering with electricity infrastructure,” said Minister Mutsvangwa.
“Cabinet considered and approved the principles for the proposed amendments of this Electricity Act, Chapter 13.19. Zesa has been experiencing increased incidents of vandalism of property and increased theft of transformer oil and copper cables conductors. The theft has resulted in Zesa incurring huge expenses in replacing the vandalised property, while the impact on business has been astronomic
“The salient features of the amendment will encompass the reviewing of the current penalty regime for identified offences in order to make the penalties more deterrent, classifying such offences under the Criminal Codification and Reform Act (Chapter 9.23) which governs various crimes including rape and murder as well as compelling courts to give mandatory sentences as opposed to options of fines which are not deterrent enough.
“Tampering without lawful excuse of any apparatus for generating, transmitting, distribution and supplying of electricity that will result in the interruption or cutting off of electricity which used to attract an imprisonment of not less than 10 years will under the amended Act attract not less than 30 years of imprisonment.”
The minister said Government would from time to time review such penalties to make them more deterrent to would-be offenders.
On the updates of the country’s power supply situation, Minister Mutsvangwa said Cabinet noted that electricity generation at the country’s hydropower plant, Kariba, remained depressed owing to low inflows into the lake in the wake of low rainfall in the catchment area.
“While every effort is being made to ensure that citizens and corporates continue to access electricity for sustaining operations, Government wishes to inform the nation that greater emphasis will be placed on power augmentation projects with commencement of work on the Batoka Gorge site being scheduled for this year,” she said.
“Focus is also being placed on the renewable energy including options of harvesting power from rooftops and solar farms set to gain momentum.”