Rolling power cuts lasting 18 hours a day have choked the two economies
The Victoria Falls is seen from the air following a prolonged drought in Zimbabwe. IImage taken on December 5, 2019. Picture: MIKE HUTCHINGS/REUTERS
The power crises in the three countries has worsened economic strain. Zimbabwe’s GDP is expected to shrink this year, Zambia is on course for the slowest expansion in more than two decades and SA is staring down a second recession in as many years. Electricity prices will need to rise, Walsh said. That would add to inflation woes — Zimbabwe’s consumer prices surged an estimated 481% last month, and in Zambia price growth is at a three-year high.
Zimbabwe more than tripled power tariffs in October and will need to act again, while Zambia has warned that an announcement on prices is imminent.That Zambia “is in a debt-induced crisis implies that very few external, and some domestic, suppliers of electricity are willing to guarantee additional supply without onerous demands which Zambia is unlikely to satisfy”, said Grieve Chelwa, a senior economics lecturer at the University of Cape Town.
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