The Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Energy and Power Development, Gloria Magombo revealed that ZESA employees are responsible for vandalising electricity transformers. The damage to electricity infrastructure has resulted in frequent power outages in most areas, with some places going for years without power. The revelations came when Magombo appeared before the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Energy. In response to several issues raised by the legislators, Magombo had this to say
Some funding has been allocated for transformers because we had about 1 600 transformers that had been vandalised, and currently, we are targeting that 4 000 should have been purchased by the end of the first quarter next year… We have already gone to tender for an additional 2 000 transformers and Zent was going to manufacture the 2 000 transformers,
While we are looking at installing 4 000 transformers, we actually need more than that because we are not looking at the needs for Zesa only, but rural electrification, farming and other communities that need transformers.
We train electricians, but unfortunately, some of them are criminals. We have to ensure there are stiffer penalties for vandalism of infrastructure which is 10 years by putting alarm systems. What we need to deal with is the mindset of our people that they cannot steal a transformer to sell it for $200 when it costs $10 000 to replace.