SOME Mpopoma residents in Bulawayo have expressed anger over what they termed the sheer unprofessionalism of employees of a company contracted by Zesa to install prepaid meters in their houses.
INNOCENT NXUMALO OWN CORRESPONDENT
Zesa contracted Solahart to install prepaid meters, but residents allege that its workers had been terrorising them by banging on their doors late at night demanding that they be allowed in to install the meters.
Robert Munanga (84) said he felt disrespected and violated to be woken up late at night just for a meter installation.
“They woke me up at around 11:30pm saying if they didn’t install the meter at that time, I risked being switched off,” said an upset Munanga.
Another resident Gogo Nleya said she felt insecure and did not open for the Solahart workers thinking they were thieves.
“It is dangerous for a vulnerable granny like me to open doors for strangers late at night. I ignored their continuous banging and they came to install in the morning,” Nleya said.
Some residents revealed that their households were left out for simply not responding to the Solahart workers’s late night knocks.
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As if the late night installations were not enough, some residents also cried foul saying they were robbed of their cash as their existing cash power and advance electricity payments were not credited to the new prepaid meters during the exercise.
The residents said they found it strange that the Solahart workers were replacing existing prepaid meters.
“Before this prepaid meter installation, I had made an advance payment of $87 into my electricity account, but to my surprise it was not transferred to my new prepaid meter.
“The prepaid meter had only $5. I went twice to their offices to complain, but the matter remains unresolved,” said a resident who identified herself as MaMsimanga. Khumbulani Moyo said he already had $12 in his prepaid meter and “I was surprised when Solahart workers replaced it with another meter credited with only $5”.
Moyo said despite his frantic efforts, nothing has been done to correct this anomaly.
A Solahart supervisor, who declined to give his first name and only identified himself as Banda, said he was unaware of the residents’ allegations that Solahart employees were installing the meters in the dead of night.
“I cannot deny or confirm that. At the moment I am not aware that workers were installing meters at such odd hours,” he said.
