The 19% rise comes after a 320% increase in October
A customer takes a close look at prices while shopping in a groceries store in Harare. Picture: AFP/ JEKESAI NJIKIZANA
In October 2019, the Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company increased power tariffs by 320% but businesses still experience long power cuts lasting up to 18 hours a day. Zimbabwe is undergoing its worst economic crisis in a decade, with shortages of maize, fuel and medicines, provoking resentment against the government of President Emmerson Mnangagwa.
Economist Gift Mugano told Business Day the hike will lead to yet another spiral of price increases in the country. “The power utility has a delicate balance to maintain — on one hand, it has to pay for power imports and also has to review its rates in line with the country’s inflation. It has no choice but to raise tariffs, but what this means is that as businesses we also have to raise prices.”
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