Harare, Zimbabwe \u2013 In the sweltering late-morning heat, Benjamin Musoro sits on a wooden stool on his veranda in Kuwadzana, a high-density suburb west of Zimbabwe\u2019s capital Harare.<\/p>\n
Squinting at the screen on his entry-level mobile, the 71-year-old father of five tops up his account with the Zimbabwe Power Company (ZPC)- the state electricity provider.<\/p>\n
When his lights and television set went dark the previous evening, it was a sure sign his balance was negative.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe cost of electricity is too high,\u201d he told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n
For most of last year, Musoro\u2019s biggest problem stemmed from a lack of available power. Hit by a combination of man-made and natural challenges, the state power company simply could not generate enough electricity to keep up with demand, forcing it to institute blackouts for up to 17 hours a day.<\/p>\n
Since last fall, though, routine outages have been minimised to a few hours and only on isolated days, but not because more power is available.<\/p>\n
Electricity tariffs in Zimbabwe skyrocketed in October 2019, when the Zimbabwe Energy Regulatory Authority (ZERA) approved an application by ZPC\u2019s parent company \u2013 the Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company (ZETDC) \u2013 to dramatically increase tariffs.<\/p>\n
The price hike aimed to curtail household power consumption, bring tariffs in line with inflation, and eliminate subsidies the Zimbabwean government can ill afford.<\/p>\n
But wages have not kept pace with the country\u2019s blistering inflation. And the squeeze on household finances has now become a stranglehold after the regulator approved another 50 percent tariff increase late last month.<\/p>\n
Forcing tough choices<\/p>\n
Last year\u2019s rate increase had already forced consumers to make tough choices about how to allocate their precious power usage.<\/p>\n
Musoro, who shares his homestead \u2013 an eight-room main house and a separate cottage \u2013 with four other families, has restricted power use to lights, televisions and refrigerators only.<\/p>\n
Cooking, which can lead to a punitive bill totalling thousands of Zimbabwean dollars, did not make the cut.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe no longer use electricity for cooking here,\u201d he said. \u201cWe are struggling to pay 700 [Zimbabwean] dollars for electricity as it is. It\u2019s going to be harder with the [tariff] increase.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the official exchange rate, 700 Zimbabwean dollars buys $8.5 (USD).<\/p>\n
Zimbabwe is in the throes of a prolonged and festering economic crisis. Inflation running more than 800 percent and foreign currency shortages that have led to stomach-churning currency devaluations have been exacerbated by stagnant salaries that cannot keep pace with soaring prices.<\/p>\n
The coronavirus pandemic has only heaped more hardships onto the nation\u2019s financially embattled population.<\/p>\n
Teachers in Zimbabwe earn approximately $50 every month. Pensioners receive less than $10 a month.<\/p>\n
Even private-sector workers in their prime fret about how they will cope with yet another tariff rise.<\/p>\n
Kingston Simbulani, a 46-year-old metal worker, splits the power bill with another tenant in his home. Together, they spend 400 Zimbabwean dollars ($4.83) every month on energy.<\/p>\n
\u201cI really can\u2019t afford the new electricity tariffs,\u201d Simbulani told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n
The roots of the crisis<\/p>\n
Zimbabwe has been struggling with power shortages since April 2019, when water levels in the Zambezi River dropped sharply due to drought, crippling the country\u2019s biggest hydroelectricity supplier, Kariba South Power Station.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Harare, Zimbabwe \u2013 In the sweltering late-morning heat, Benjamin Musoro sits on a wooden stool on his veranda in Kuwadzana, a high-density suburb west of Zimbabwe\u2019s capital Harare. Squinting at the screen on his entry-level mobile, the 71-year-old father of five tops up his account with the Zimbabwe Power Company (ZPC)- the state electricity provider. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":28797,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,6],"tags":[747,645],"class_list":{"0":"post-28796","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-all-news","8":"category-economy","9":"tag-zera","10":"tag-zetdc"},"yoast_head":"\n