Hichilema and the ‘lack of vision’ over electricity

By Daily Revelation Editor

“Why is there no load shedding in Saudi Arabia, and there is load shedding here where there is rain, where there is water? There is no rain, there is no water (In Saudi Arabia). Brain power! Thinking. Vision. Ichimonwa. Umunenu alimyeba ati takwata ichimonwa, mwamufyantamo, mwamubikamo (Your friend told you that he had no vision, but you put him in power). So today you are complaining. There is no issue of climate change, it’s a leadership, it’s the vision that is lacking. Because the sun is shining where there is no rain. Do you know the opposite of rain? The opposite of rain is heat, it’s sun. So when it rains under UPND we will produce power by enhancing hydro-electricity generation…. When there is no rain, it’s hot, it’s sunny, we will generate power from solar power stations. That’s the difference,” said then opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema.

President Hichilema made the remarks during the load shedding period the country was going through under the leadership of late Edgar Lungu. Like it is now, though very much on the extreme, the country was going through a load shedding period following inadequate rains experienced in the rain season before.

During that period, Hichilema offered a diagnosis of the challenge the country was going through, and why it was going through that situation. He wondered why for instance a country such as Saudi Arabia, which was in the desert and wasn’t so blessed with the water resources like Zambia, had no load shedding, yet Zambians here were enduring blackouts. Hichilema said the situation was so on account of lack of vision by then president Lungu, as he himself had indicated that he had no vision but the people still elected him.

We just wonder what Hichilema will say about himself now, because this is the second year running that the country is enduring blackouts. And instead of improving, the situation is actually worsening as millions do not remember the last time they enjoyed daily electricity supply of more than 7 hours per day. Actually, the prevailing scheduling right now is 5 hours daily supply at most, which oftentimes is never even guaranteed due to the chaotic scheduling by ZESCO. There is actually an absurd scheduling where electricity is only provided to people at 24:00 hours when many are fast asleep, and taken away from them around 04:00 hours in the morning when they are also still fast asleep.

Clearly, Hichilema and his administration seem at sea in trying to resolve this matter. We actually are not even sure if at all they are even bothered to have the matter resolved. Given the failure to do anything about this matter since the blackout season started, many will be forgiven to conclude that should there be an appreciable uptick in electricity generation, it will mainly be motivated by electioneering, while reverting to the current status quo immediately after the elections if the current political status quo remains the same.