Fr Mukosa on tariff hikes, exports

By Daily Revelation Editor

Catholic priest Father Andrew Chewe Mukosa says it’s criminal for Zesco to increase electricity tariffs when the reason advanced for applying for the emergency tariff adjustments has not been achieved.

Fr Mukosa further wondered why the UPND administration is keen on selling and exporting electricity to other countries when their own country is grappling with serious power deficiencies.

The questions Fr Mukosa is asking are being asked by the other millions of Zambians, in terms of why they have continued experiencing blackouts, for many, longer than the 17 hours they were promised they would experience when their government was signing them up for the same. The government was categorical when they were announcing the tariff hikes that Zambians would receive seven hours of electricity daily, once the emergency hikes were effected. However, that promise has remained a pipedream for many, despite paying heavily for the adjusted tariffs.

While it is mandatory for them to pay the adjusted high prices for the electricity, the energy provider seems to be safe in the comfort of treating the same as optional. The comfort especially comes from the fact that they have the full support of those in government to do as they please, with Energy minister Makozo Chikote recently seeming to indicate that the 7-hours was aspirational, as he had always insisted on starting with the three hours, and then moving on seven hours, 10 hours and so on and so forth.

But Fr Mukosa said this manner of conducting matters is criminal. And he seems to have a point here. It’s like going to a shop to buy goods, but once someone has made the payment, the shopkeeper suddenly changes their mind by refusing to provide the goods, without actually offering to refund the money they have received from the buyer. If according to Zesco’s understanding they cannot provide the promised hours of supply to the consumers, they must state so, by urging the ERB to reverse the hiked tariffs.

Fr Mukosa is also urging the government to stop the exports to other countries in order to prioritise citizens. Of course, the government has argued that they are doing so in order to respect contracts that have been signed with other countries. However, one may argue that the biggest social contract that any government signs is with its own people, as it is assumed that whoever gets elected becomes leader of all Zambians, including those who voted against. Fr Mukosa argues that the water that is filling up in the rivers, instead of being used to increase the number of hours of electricity supply here, is being used to generate energy for the other countries instead.

Government can surely do a balancing act in terms of the exports and prioritising local supply, especially during crisis periods such as the one the country is going through, where people’s livelihoods have been violently interrupted on account of the crippling blackouts.