ZESCO RATE HIKE SHOULD BE REVERSED AND MINISTER KOPALA SHOULD RESIGN- UKA

ZESCO RATE HIKE SHOULD BE REVERSED AND MINISTER KOPALA SHOULD RESIGN

We call upon the UPND to have a heart and give Zambians some relief from the unmanageable cost of living which is being increased by the ZESCO tariffs hike inflicted on the people.

The levels of lying and deceit from the UPND government have reached levels that would make Pinocchio’s nose grow so much that it would go round the world and poke him at the back of his head.

Energy Minister Peter Kapala should resign rather than trying to lie and pass the buck to the Board Chair and ERB Director General. He seems not to know what is happening in the sector that falls under his portfolio.

In April 2024, The Energy Regulation Board (ERB) approved Zesco’s request to increase electricity tariffs by 10 percent effective May 1, 2024. ERB Board Chairperson Reynolds Bowa, in an official statement, repeated that in April, 2023, the board approved Zesco’s multi-year tariffs for a five-year period from 2023 to 2027.

There has been extreme backlash from the public over the increase in domestic tarries by ten percent. The government has been trying to distance itself from the decision and claimed that it was executed without prior notice to themselves.

The Energy Regulation Board has since sent its Director General, Yohane Mukabe, on forced leave allegedly because the recent approval of Zesco tariff increment was done without full consultation and prior notice to the government.

In a meeting held at the beginning of May, the board also passed a vote of no confidence in the board chairman, Reynolds Bowa, over the same issue.

Both Reynolds Bowa and Yohan Mukabe have been made sacrificial lambs and thrown under the bus. The Energy Minister, Peter Kapala, is refusing to take responsibility for decisions made by two boards that he has appointed.

Kapala appointed both the ZESCO and ERB Boards. Both these boards regularly report to him. If they have not reported to him since April last year (2023), he should tell us why this is so. If indeed they have kept him in the dark since last year, why is he not dissolving the ERB and ZESCO Boards?

Before April last year (2023), ZESCO applied to ERB to increase tariffs each year from 2023 to 2027. Upon receiving this request from ZESCO, the ERB Board advertised (in 2023) that the public were being invited to make submissions and let their feelings be known on the tarries.

Minister Peter Kapala is telling us that he was not aware of this notification to the public which was all over the print and electronic media. Kapala and the UPND are claiming that they did not see the statement released last year, on Friday 21st April 2023, by ERB which clearly indicated that the domestic rates would be increased in 2024 to Kwacha KWh from 0.40 to 0.44.

The statement also states that in 2025, 2026 and 2027 the tariff will increase to 0.54, 0.63 and 0.73 respectively. Can Minister Kolala confirm that he had no knowledge of the ERB statement of last year warning everyone of the changes that were provisionally approved.

Kapala is in a Catch 22 situation.

If he did not see the Friday 21st April 2023 ERB statement then he is incompetent and not upto his job. It means he cannot be given the responsibility of overseeing our energy sector. He took his eye off the ball.

If he did see the advert, the question which arises is why he did not do a thing about it? He froze into inaction.

the Energy Regulation Act under Section 7(2) gives the Minister the power to “…give to the Board general or specific directions …. relating to the performance of its functions and the Board shall give effect to those directions.”

Why does the minister not reverse the hikes? Rather than saying the UPND did not know about the increase and just leave things as they are, the UPND should reverse the increase. After all a certain politician said it was ‘foolish’ to raise electricity tariffs whilst there is load shedding.

The truth of the matter is that these increases are part of the conditions pushed onto us to get the debt restructuring. UPND have sold our souls to the World Bank and IMF.

Feigning surprise and lack of knowledge of these ZESCO hikes is just one instance of the long unending line of electric lies from the UPND.

SAKWIBA SIKOTA SC.,
PRESIDENT
UNITED LIBERAL PARTY