By Munyaradzi Makoni in Gweru, Zimbabwe. Can someone explain in simplest jargon, why we pay for electricity every month? This has nothing to do with street activism neither is it bush economics. But, it defies logic when we pay escalating bills at the end of each month yet we use less and less electricity.

An average calculation clearly shows that people are denied electricity three quarters of their working hours. Domestically, all hours put together, people would be without electricity for a good 15 days in a month. Workers who depend upon electricity for their operations are crippled. Unfortunately some workers are now being paid for hours they actually worked as if they are the cause of electricity blackouts. It's a real disaster.

The more affluent use their resources to buy generators. It works for them. They keep the essentials of the business going. What about the poor? Those companies that have been operating between the thin line of success and failure. They are sinking deeper into penury and debt as they watch their efforts and aspirations flounder away. How many small to medium scale enterprises can afford generators and at what price?
These are depressing months. It is almost impossible to plan with targets in mind. Ideally, one would think of finishing a task in the next 10 hours but in the following six hours there will be no power. Sadly, the timetables for blackouts are available but they only exist on paper.

One wakes up in the morning and finds electricity is already gone by 5 am. A cold bath, a cold breakfast is all one has to fathom. On reporting for work, there would be no electricity for a good six hours. The power utility ZESA Holdings has been reported by auditors to be sitting on a Z$105 billion deficit. A shocking revelation especially when one expects an end to blackout see-saws soon.

The depression graph rises further when one starts to think how long the blackouts will last? How long? Ben Rafemoyo was recently appointed ZESA chief executive officer on a five-year contract. Does he have the stamina to steer the crumbling parastatal? In the past we have been assured with promises and lies that things will normalize. We can take it to be another dosage of political hogwash. We sincerely hope that bread will be cheap next season, we were told electricity is being saved for irrigating wheat farms. If it does not, someone must resign. As the nation scrambles for innovative ways to manage blackouts, its fair to say someone made a big mistake by naming Zimbabwe after ruins. The whole country is now in ruins. Perhaps naming it Republic of Zimbabwe Ruins would not be a bad idea!