Zimbabwe addresses SADC Summit blackout concerns

Zimbabwean authorities are pullng all stops to gloss over the country’s social economic and political challenges ahead this month’s SADC summit after ordering the power utility to ensure uninterrupted electricity supply to select venues. The identified venues host the ongoing SADC Industrialisation Week, the upcoming Council of Ministers, an investment forum, a public lecture, the Organ Troika Ministerial Committee and the actual summit on 17 August. New Zimbabwe reports that these include the Harare International Conference Centre, the New Parliament Building in Mt Hampden and the University of Zimbabwe’s Diamond Lecture Theatre. In a leaked memorandum, Energy Permanent Secretary, Gloria Magombo wrote to Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority Executive Chairman Sydney Gata requesting him ‘to ensure uninterrupted power supply at the above-mentioned venues during the SADC summit period’. Ordinary citizens are enduring 20 hours of power cuts daily, but President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s administration is planning to give regional leaders scheduled to attend the annual fiesta the impression that all is well. The government recently took over the sprucing up of social services from Harare City Council, a move which has seen roads to be used by VIPs being rehabilitated while vendors have been evicted.