Harare - Zimbabwe's electricity supplier has been forced to make power cuts in its two biggest cities due to a "power shortage", officials said Saturday.
In the latest blow to consumers grappling with poor service, the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority plunged the capital Harare and the second city of Bulawayo in darkness for about four hours Friday evening.
"We introduced load shedding in some parts of Harare and this also affected other parts of Bulawayo suburbs," spokesperson Obert Nyatanga said.
"Eskom was experiencing problems with its own generators, so we ended up having a shortfall of 400 MegaWatts which resulted in power shortages," he said, referring to neighbouring South Africa's electricity utility Eskom.
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| Zimbabweans have been reeling under power cuts and poor service |
Zimbabweans have been reeling under power cuts and poor service but Nyatanga said the problems will be solved by the end of next week.
"We have taken one of our generators... for repairs in preparation for the winter peak electricity demands," Nyatanga said.
"But the situation was made worse because of problems at Eskom which resulted in our imports being reduced by 80 percent," he said.
Zimbabwe's power requirements are currently met 60 percent through internal generation and 40 percent through imports.
Imports are expected to stop in 2007 when exporting countries are seen as likely to run out of surplus power due to increased demand.
| Imports most of its power |
Zimbabwe imports most of its power from South Africa, Democratic Republic of Congo and Mozambique.
Zimbabwe's once-model economy has been in a downturn for the last five years, characterised by runaway inflation and perennial shortages of foreign currency and basic commodities. - Sapa-AFP
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