Zambians enduring chaotic 3-hr power supply without Govt announcing

By Daily Revelation Editor

Socialist Party leader Fred M’mebe argues that President Hakainde Hichilema’s government wants Zambians to adjust their lives downward, and forced to live with a reality they have never known and experienced at this scale

“Our homes have been left in total darkness. Businesses have been forced to close. Enough is enough. Zambians deserve leaders who put the nation first. Come 2026, Hichilema and his backwardness (load-shedding) must go,” stated M’membe. “They want people who have always lived with the pride and dignity of reliable access to power to suddenly embrace darkness and its crippling consequences. In essence, Mr Hichilema and his team want us to normalise backwardness and excuse their reckless and irresponsible decisions over the power crisis.”

M’membe argued that families were suffering untold misery, pain and hardship but the government prioritised profit from export of power over the well-being of its own citizens.

He stated that It was sad that the government wanted people to accept load-shedding as a new normal. 

There is clearly something very seriously troubling in the manner Hichilema’s government has gone about handling the supply of electricity to Zambians in the last two years. To borrow Hichilema’s own words, this is the clearest definition of chipantepante, a lack of vision and a tragic failure of leadership to address a national crisis. If Zambians needed any confirmation that they are secondary in the government’s scheme of things, they ought to look no further than how their own government has handled the electricity supply in the last two years. Clearly, profits through the supply of electricity to foreign countries has been prioritized, mainly through some questionable companies, which may have ended up lining the pockets of the powerful in government with their business associates.

And because of that lack of priority towards Zambians, the government has turned a blind eye towards the chaotic manner in which ZESCO has handled their own announced scheduling. In what seems like the government’s calculated move for Zambians to get used to the backwardness of darkness, the government has carefully ensured that the most the people have received in terms of electricity supply in the last two years is 7-hours daily at most. We are made to believe that the regime in place right now is for the people to be supplied with 5-hours daily supply due to the alleged maintenance works at Maamba. However, the announced five hours is a lie as Zambians are only enduring three hours of electricity supply daily, with the same being provided in the usual chaotic fashion, where energy is restored for one hour then taken away again to be restored at an announced period during the day maybe for another 30 minutes or one hour. Thereafter, the energy is switched on and off again at another period of the day for another one hour. If there is continuous supply of three hours, then the same will likely be provided around 01;00 hours to 04;00 hours. Clearly, they are ashamed to announce the 3-hour supply.

Zambians are enduring such historical painful blackouts despite the very good rains the country experienced in the last rain season. While Zambians understood the drought from the 2023-2024 rain season, the same can no longer be used as an excuse because right after that dry season, God blessed the country with abundant rains in the 2024-2025 rain season. However, instead of improving, things seem to be getting worse, with the same government that is boasting about a bumper harvest from the previous rain season, claiming that the rain wasn’t enough to fill up the main electricity generating water bodies. Our neighbours in Zimbabwe are actually enjoying 21 hours of daily supply on account of improved water levels in the Kariba, which is shared with Zambia.