Union defends Zesco over loan

THE US$500 million that Zesco Limited borrowed was meant to save the volatile economy in the previous drought season which resulted in massive load management, the Power Generation and Allied Workers Union of Zambia (POGAWUZ) has said.

POGAWUZ president Thomas Ngendwe said had Zesco not borrowed the money to help address the energy crisis the country was experiencing then, Zambia would have had massive power blackouts.

Mr Ngendwe said despite importing power from an expensive source the utility firm still sold it at a lower rate to save the economy.

In an interview Mr Ngendwe said it was unfortunate that energy experts had failed to take this into account when they advised the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) on co’s operations.

“Zesco was made to buy power from an expensive source, but still sold it at a lower rate. This was to save the economy,” he said.

Mr Ngendwe said energy was the driver of the economy and all sectors benefited from it directly or indirectly.

He wondered why the experts had not taken that vital component into consideration.

Mr Ngendwe said the union agreed with IDC on Zesco’s application for cost reflective tariffs because the rate at which power was bought and produced was not reflected in the price.

He commended IDC for highlighting its commitment to ensuring that the independent power producers (IPP’s) whose tariffs were not matching the industrial rate were revised.

“For us as a union, this should have been a major Zeschronicle because Zesco being the driver of the economy, is cardinal to note that all sectors depend on energy directly or indirectly as electricity is the bloodline of the nation,” Mr Ngendwe said.

He said Zesco employees were not to blame for the crisis at the company because they also wanted solutions.

“We encourage people to take a keen interest and look at the labour cost and numbers against the size of the company in relation with recommended customer-employee ratio it will be observed that Zesco is actually under-staffed,” Mr Ngendwe said.

He said while vices such as pilfering and vandalism could be contained with tight security, which was not guaranteed, employees who were demotivated by fear of loss of employment would never be productive and this was drawback.