ZESA Holdings has embarked on a nationwide blitz on defaulters, including high-profile businesspeople, farmers and politicians, and has blacklisted them so that they cannot open new accounts using different addresses.

ZESA spokesman Mr Fullard Gwasira said the power utility had embarked on a cocktail of measures to recover its money, including disconnections, litigation and blocking defaulters from “taking their bad practice elsewhere”.

The power utility is owed over $1 billion by domestic, mining, industrial and other users.

“The power utility is taking various measures that include blacklisting, installation of prepayment meters for domestic consumers and small institutions, installation of smart meters for medium and large power users that consume 100 amps and above.

“We are also resorting to disconnections and litigation against such defaulters to recover the revenue that is locked with them,” he said.

On blacklisting, Mr Gwasira said: “Blacklisting is part of credit control options in use by all businesses in an attempt to flag out customers with a deviant behaviour from taking their bad practice of not honouring debts by opening accounts elsewhere. It is not a preserve of ZESA.”

Mr Gwasira said the blitz excludes critical service providers that offer basic service delivery, including local authorities.

“Disconnections are not affecting critical service providers like defaulting municipalities, but we are engaging them on the legal front to ensure that they pay for their consumption of electricity,” he said.State media