State owned power utulity company ZESCO Limited has recorded a total of 261 cases of vandalism in the first quarter of 2020 which has cost the giant power company about worth K1,657,267 (about US$95,000).
ZESCO Head of Public Relations Hazel Zulu stated in a report issued on April 28, 2020 and made available to the Zambian Business Times – ZBT that the most vandalised items were Transmission towers, transformers and copper cables (overhead service and underground cables).
She said the highest number of incidences were recorded on the Copperbelt, Southern, North-Western and Lusaka provinces.
The corporation is however saddened by this development saying it is detrimental to the development of the energy sector and the country at large considering that electrical equipment involves huge amounts of money and investments and any acts of vandalism is retrogressive and takes the corporation and the country backwards.
ZESCO is sending a stern warning to perpetrators of such vices saying the company will not relent in ensuring that the culprits are arrested and brought to book.
“It is also important to note that ZESCO recorded a total of 47 arrests in the period under review. In addition, the corporation successfully secured 12 convictions while 41 cases are still active in the Courts of Law” She said.
She added that the Corporation remains committed to ensuring that it ‘makes it easy for people to live a better life’ as it continues to work vigorously to bring these vile acts to a halt.
“Our call to the public is to join the fight against vandalism and report any such acts to the police service to ensure that the institution continues to provide sufficient and quality electricity to all its citizens,” She said.
Zesco has scaled up its retail and domestic customers connections drive and last year cross the 1 million customers mark.
