The Zimbabwean government, through the Ministry of Energy and Power Development, has set up a team that will visit South Africa shortly to negotiate with the country’s power utility, ESKOM.
Speaking to Sunday News on Saturday, Energy Minister Fortune Chasi revealed that the task team will negotiate a payment plan with ESKOM to clear the ZESA debt amounting to millions of US dollars. He said:
There is a team that has been formed to engage both Eskom and South Africa Government.
They were supposed to go there last week but as you know there were new ministerial appointments in South Africa so they had to wait. They will engage both Government and Eskom.
At the moment I cannot name members of the team but they are technical people from Zesa and other related institutions who have a know-how of the issues, I will announce the next date once we have liaised with our South Africa counterpart.
South Africa’s newly-elected President Cyril Ramaphosa appointed his close ally and former Mines Minister, Gwede Mantashe as the new Energy Minister, taking over from Jeff Radebe.