Technical Team Submits Eskom Report But No Guarantee For Electricity Imports

Energy and Power Development Minister, Fortune Chasi said that he has received a report from a technical team that he sent to South Africa recently to meet Eskom officials on issues to do with electricity imports from that country.

Chasi revealed this while responding to questions from journalists during a post-cabinet media briefing on Tuesday in Harare. He said:”We had a team consisting of people from my ministry, Zesa, Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, (and) Ministry of Finance and Economic Development that we sent to engage their technical partners from Eskom.”

They have just given me a report which I am looking at now. This meeting is a precursor to my trip to meet the relevant minister.

We have not firmed up on any date and time but it is an urgent issue that I have to travel to South Africa to sit down with my counterpart and discuss how we can resolve the various issues; the balance that we owe, what amount of power we can get from them.

The fact that we have paid part of what we owed is no automatic guarantee that we are going to get power but we have to negotiate, sit down with them and discuss.

I have no doubt that we will come up with an amicable solution that will result in us having some power.

Zimbabwe paid US$10 million to Eskom for power imported over the years. The debt, however, has not yet been fully paid.

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