By Staff writer
President Hakainde Hichilema has directed ZESCO to consider splitting the 12 hours of load shedding per area into a six-hourly schedule to help maintain economic operations.
Mr Hichilema saif Government will not shy away from taking responsibility where challenges are being faced as that is key to addressing them.
He also said to address challenges, political convinient routes shall not be taken.
President Hichilema was speaking after he visited the Maamba Collieries, and Kariba ZESCO power plants to fully appreciate the extent of electricity generation capacities directed ZESCO to consider splitting the directed 12 hours of load shedding.
“In order to mitigate the impact on small businesses, we have directed ZESCO to consider splitting the 12 hours of load shedding per area into a six-hourly schedule, so that they can maintain their operations. We shall not shy away from taking responsibility where challenges are being faced, as that is key to addressing them. And in addressing these problems, we shall not take politically convenient, populist routes; our decisions shall be based on building sound foundations that will last for generations to come,” he said.
He said that the visit was to help understand the maintenance schedules for power supply and also stated that with a visit to Kariba Dam which is shared with Zimbabwe, Government would engage the neighbouring country for optimization and effective use of the reservoir.
President Hichilema said at Kariba Dam, it was obvious that systems and processes had been neglected to the point where there was no proper monitoring, evaluation, and sharing, of critical information by different stakeholders at the right time.
“The Kariba Dam is a shared asset between Zambia and our counterparts in Zimbabwe, run by the Zambezi River Authority (ZRA). We shall therefore be engaging our Zimbabwean counterparts to ensure optimization and effective use of this reservoir, “ he said
