EEF President, Julius Malema pleads with South Africa President, Cyril Ramaphosa to assist Zimbabwe since South Africa was assisted by Zimbabwe during apartheid.

South Africa’s Economic Freedom Fighters party has pleaded with South Africa president, Cyril Ramaphosa to assist Zimbabwe ‘find a solution”. The party’s statement comes after a Zimbabwean delegation led by Energy Minister, advocate Fortune Chasi, which had gone to South Africa to negotiate a power deal came back empty-handed.

South Africa power utility, ESKOM, reduced the electricity it was exporting to Zimbabwe citing a huge debt Zimbabwe needs to pay first.

Recently, Zimbabwe paid ESKOM US$10 million to the power utility but it was not enough to unlock resumption of power exportation by ESKOM.

The EFF party, led by the youthful and vibrant Julius Sello Malema, posted on twitter and said:

“Zimbabwe please find a solution. The situation there is troubling all of us. Ramaphosa we must assist because they assisted during apartheid.”

Zimbabwe power utility, ZESA, attributes the power deficit to dwindling water levels at the Kariba Dam which supplies the Kariba South Hydropower plant. It also says that ageing equipment at the Hwange thermal power station has affected power generation.

Resultantly, ZESA has rolled out a crippling power cut, locally known as load-shedding, which has seen most parts of the country going without power between 0400 hours and 2200 hours.

The Business community, including big companies, has already expressed concern over the adverse impact power outages have on the economy.

OK Zimbabwe, one of the biggest retail has since closed a shop in Rusape whilst a Chinese tile making company based in Norton, YI Feng Tiles, has reported that it is likely to lose about US$1.2 million due to power cuts.

Pindula