Leader of Opposition in Parliament Kondwani Nankhumwa has challenged President Lazarus Chakwera to act on the persistent electricity blackouts.
In a statement, Nankhumwa said welding shops cannot operate and those selling perishable products are being forced to discard their merchandise which is going bad.
Nankhumwa further said Chakwera’s directive to Minister of Energy Ibrahim Matola to investigate the power outages following Sunday’s national blackout means that he is detached from reality.
“President Chakwera should care to know that the problem of intermittent power supply reached a crisis level more than two months ago and that now it is becoming a national catastrophe.
“ESCOM has been dutifully sharing load-shedding schedules, informing people the times when electricity supply will not be available, and the times when electricity will be available. However, these are schedules that ESCOM no longer sticks to,” wrote Nankhumwa.
He added: “Every time, ESCOM announces a 12-hour power restoration period, but this is also not always the case as electricity is restored for only one hour, then it’s off again.
“Businesses that rely on electricity are on their death bed. Those rearing chickens, who need incubators, can no longer use incubators, leading to huge losses.
“Welding businesses can no longer weld. Shops with perishables that need to be kept frozen have to throw their perishable stocks away due to lack of power supply. Milling businesses have practically been shut down. Mr. President, the problem is not only what you call “the system shutdown that resulted in a nation-wide blackout over the weekend.”
Chakwera is yet to comment on the matter.
