Desperately needed electricity imports to Zimbabwe from Mozambique have been cut short after thieves stole wires to two pylons near Harare, say reports.The thieves targeted the pylons, near Harare’s outlying suburb of Zimre Park, last week causing a break in power transmission from Mozambique, said the official Herald daily.

The thieves stole connecting wires and then the pylons collapsed, according to the report.

A spokesperson for the state-run ZESA power company warned this would lead to more power cuts for struggling Zimbabweans.

Much of the country was plunged into darkness this weekend after a major systems disturbance in neighbouring Zambia caused regional outages.

“Unfortunately, anyone who cut the supporting wires did not recognise the magnitude of damage he was doing to the country and the region as the cables also provide South Africa and Botswana with power,” said spokesperson Fullard Gwasira.

“ZESA is greatly disturbed by the level of vandalism of vital power infrastructure in the country,” Gwasira told the Herald.

ZESA employees were busy trying to right the problem.

Meanwhile, engineers had switched on six generators at the main Kariba Hydroelectrical Power Station to try to compensate for this weekends blackout.

Along with power, central suburbs of Harare like Highlands and Greendale lost water supplies due to the blackout.

Hospitals and airports were badly affected by the loss of power. Zimbabwe now only imports power from Mozambique and the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Herald revealed. News 24

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