By Staff Writer
Solwezi Mayor Remmy Kalepa has cautioned residents in the district against illegal power connections to prevent death and damage to property.
Speaking when he conducted a fact finding tour of Muzabula A market commonly known as Muteba market where there are complaints of power interruptions attributed to overloading of the metre, the Mayor has pointed out the need for all Traders to use power at the Market for the intended purpose to prevent units from finishing fast.
Mr Kalepa has implored the Muzabula community to work together with the Local Authority in order to see development in the area while giving them an assurance that the Council is in the process of gazetting the market after which Council services will be accessible at the market.
Also present during the fact finding tour is the Zambia Electricity Supply Corporation (ZESCO) North Western Regional Manager Cephas Lungu who explained that his office had received a complaint from the Kazhiba ward Councillor Collins Chiwaya that the ZESCO prepaid metre at Muzabula A market was consuming a lot of power.
Mr Lungu explained that the main reason why power consumption at the said market is high is because many households around the market area and shops have illegally connected to the market metre.
He clarified that the prepaid metre is not faulty but overloaded due to shop owners, households and heavy duty activities such as welding connected to the Metre.
The ZESCO Regional Manager then informed the traders that a team from his office will this week be sent to the market to ascertain what should be connected to the metre and what should be removed.
Mr Lungu implored all Muzabula residents that haven’t applied for power connection to do so separately as opposed to illegally connecting to the market prepaid metre.
The ZESCO Regional Manager then gave a 7 days ultimatum to the shop owners, individuals and households that have illegally connected to the market metre.
