Zimbabwe hikes power costs, as blackouts persist

Jun 5, 2007, 10:19 GMT

Harare - Widespread power outages continued to grip Zimbabwe Tuesday as the main power company announced it would be hiking its tariffs by more than 50 per cent.

To make matters worse, frustrated residents in the capital Harare have been warned there will be steep hikes in the cost of council services including refuse collection, rentals, burials and clinic fees, said the official Herald daily.

'The costs of producing electricity are going up every month and yet tariffs have not gone through the stage that is cost reflective,' Gloria Magombo, an official from the Zimbabwe Electricity Distribution Company, said in comments carried by the Herald.

'Tariffs are, therefore, expected to rise in line with the costs of production and monthly inflation.'

Last month annual inflation leapt to 3,714 per cent, hitting a new national record. Month-on-month inflation topped a staggering 100.2 per cent.

The power company earlier this year said it was broke because of the low tariffs it was forced to charge.

News of the tariff hike will annoy many customers, battling to feed and warm themselves as Zimbabwe experiences widespread power cuts due to a major fault at the main Hwange power station in the west of the country.

Worse still, residents in both low and high-income suburbs in Harare will from next month also face massive increases in municipal rates.

The cost of renting council property, visiting municipal clinics, burying relatives in council cemeteries and hiring council ambulances, will all increase from July 1, sometimes by more than 40 times, said the Herald.

Monthly charges for rubbish removal in a low-income suburb will go up 46-fold to 140,000 Zimbabwe dollars (560 US dollars) a month from 3,063 dollars a month, said the Herald.

Renting a house in a low-income suburb like Kuwadzana, in the west of the city will go up from 28,600 a month, to more than a million Zimbabwe dollars.

Dying will not be a cheaper option.

Quoting budget proposals that have already been approved by the commission running Harare, the Herald said burial fees in municipal cemeteries would be hiked from 30,000 Zimbabwe dollars to 100,000 dollars.

Getting buried in a prime burial spot could cost as much as two million Zimbabwe dollars.

Many of Zimbabwe's workers earn less than 500,000 dollars a month and are already struggling to cope with the ever-diminishing purchasing power of their pay packets.

Last week the cost of a loaf of bread went up from 9,500 to between 15,000 and 20,000 dollars, and prices on supermarket shelves increase daily.

There are shortages of many basic commodities such as cooking oil, sugar and the staple maize meal, forcing consumers to purchase them on the black market.