AfrElec: Zimbabwe's president visits Mozambique, Zambia to rescue power import contracts

Zimbabwe's President Emmerson Mnangagwa is due this week to visit Mozambique and Zambia to secure electricity import contracts threatened by South Africa’s aggressive push for more power to cover a large shortfall.

Writing in his weekly column in state-owned The Sunday Mail on July 31, Mnangagwa urged Zimbabweans not to panic over a power shortage that emerged in 2007, like elsewhere in southern Africa but which has intensified in recent months, leading to prolonged blackouts.

“This week I am paying a working visit to the sister republic of Mozambique,” he wrote. “In the coming weeks, I am likely to meet President [Hakainde] Hichilema of Zambia in Livingstone. Both sister countries supply us with power. I will engage my colleagues with a view to ensuring our power imports are secure and uninterrupted.”

Zimbabwe has an installed capacity of 2,000 MW with 600 MW more expected between November 2022 and March 2023, when two units being built at the coal-burning Hwange plant are commissioned. National demand is about 1,500 MW, which means that by the end of Q1 2023 the country will, if all goes as planned, have a theoretical surplus of 1,100 MW, Mnangagwa said.