Inside Kariba South: Parliament, Power And Zimbabwe’s Energy Future
For a few hours on the morning of 27 June 2026, the Demonstration Room at Kariba South Power Station felt less like a briefing venue and more like a war council. Facing engineers, executives, and a wall of charts, members of Zimbabwe’s Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Energy and Power Development made one thing clear: they had come not as spectators, but as partners with a direct stake in the country’s most strategic electricity asset.
“This is not a tourist excursion,” said Acting Chairperson Hon Engineer Lesley Mhangwa, standing in for Committee Chairperson Hon Charlton Hwende. “We are here because high on our agenda is Zimbabwe’s energy and power sector, and that sector is predominantly here.”
What followed was a morning of candid, technically dense, and at times disarmingly personal exchanges between lawmakers and the engineers who keep the lights on for a nation of sixteen million people.
Kariba South: Backbone Of The Grid
Kariba South Power Station has long held a singular place in Zimbabwe’s electricity system. With an installed capacity of 1,050 megawatts – roughly half of the Zimbabwe Power Company’s total generation – it is, as Acting General Manager Engineer Tichaona Nyandoro described it, the backbone of the national grid.
The scene for the visit was set in remarks from Engineer Cletus Nyachowe, Acting Chief Executive Officer of ZESA Holdings, delivered to MPs by Acting ZPC Managing Director Engineer Nobert Matarutse.
Kariba South, the address argued, is far more than a power plant. It is the grid’s shock absorber, its cost stabiliser, and a working symbol of regional cooperation on the Zambezi.
“Kariba South generation has the unique capability to respond rapidly to fluctuations in electricity demand,” the address noted, “enabling the system operator to balance the grid effectively and maintain system security.”
In a regional power pool where big coal stations cannot easily ramp up and down, that flexibility is gold. Hydropower can respond in minutes, keeping frequency stable when demand spikes or drops.
Kariba South also plays a quiet economic role. Hydropower is among the cheapest electricity in ZESA’s portfolio, and when the station runs well it drags down the average cost of supply. When water is tight or machines are down, more expensive options – imports or thermal plants – must fill the gap.
Water, Climate And The New Ceiling On Hydro
The most consequential part of the morning’s discussions came down to a single word: water. Kariba South’s output is chained to rainfall across the Zambezi catchment and to the allocation rules set by the Zambezi River Authority (ZRA), the bi-national body managing water use between Zimbabwe and Zambia.
Under normal conditions, the ZRA allocates about 40 billion cubic metres of water annually for power generation at Kariba, shared equally between Kariba South on the Zimbabwean side and Kariba North in Zambia. That 20:20 split is the foundation on which both countries plan their hydro output.
That balance is now under pressure. Zimbabwe’s Meteorological Office has already declared that El Niño conditions will persist through to 31 December 2026. Come October, the traditional start of the rainy season, significantly reduced inflows into the Kariba catchment are expected.
“We need to plan around that,” the ZESA address acknowledged dryly, “and these are some of the real issues coming from climate change which we cannot wish away.”
Water conservation, MPs were told, is no longer an operational footnote, but a governing constraint. Every dispatch decision at Kariba South – how many units to run, at what load, and for how many hours – is framed by how much water remains in the “bank” and how long the dry season is likely to last.
FFA Explainer:
El Niño is a climatic pattern linked to warming in the central and eastern Pacific Ocean. In southern Africa, it is often associated with below-average rainfall and higher temperatures. For hydropower-dependent countries like Zimbabwe and Zambia, El Niño years typically mean reduced dam inflows, lower generation, and pressure to use water sparingly.
185 Days Without Load Shedding – And The Price Behind It
If the morning had a headline number, it was 185. By the time MPs arrived at Kariba South, Zimbabwe had gone roughly 185 consecutive days without load shedding – a stark contrast to three years ago, when households endured outages of up to 18 hours a day.
Engineer Lovemore Chinaka, presenting the broader ZPC national picture, walked the committee through how that turnaround was achieved. The mechanism was simple in concept, demanding in execution: a US$12 million facility, long in the making, was finally secured to allow ZESA to tap the Southern African Power Pool’s day-ahead market.
When utilities elsewhere in the region find themselves with surplus capacity – because demand dipped, a plant ran better than forecast, or it is cheaper to sell than to shut down – they offer that power on the pool’s spot market. ZESA, sitting at the geographic and operational centre of the Pool (whose coordination centre is in Harare), can see those offers in real time and buy quickly.
The economics are clear. The day-ahead market rate averaged about 7.1 US cents per kilowatt-hour, well below the 12.8 cents ZESA had been paying under a Power Purchase Agreement with ESCOM of Malawi. By substituting cheaper spot imports for more expensive contracted power, ZESA cut costs and security risks at once.
“Of the entire period since November,” Chinaka told MPs, “only 19 days saw any load sharing at all, and on those 19 days, the duration was at most two hours.”
The room received the figures with restrained satisfaction. Hon Mhangwa, true to form, offered a measured verdict: “Considering where we are coming from – where at times we had almost 18 hours of load shedding – it is a big feat.”
Ageing Machines, Foreign Currency And Structural Weaknesses
The good news came with caveats. Engineer Nyandoro’s briefing on asset condition reminded MPs that Kariba South’s strong showing rests on ageing infrastructure that demands constant, expensive care.
Two recent failures have underlined the risks. Unit 4 suffered a major failure in July 2022. Unit 3 experienced a generator failure in August 2025, since repaired and returned to service. Unit 4 remains the bigger worry: its turbine runner – the heart of the machine – is being manufactured in Brazil by GE Hydro, the successor to the original European supplier.
Engineer Matarutse brought a rare note of optimism here. A ZESA team had visited the Brazilian plant two weeks before the committee visit and reported that fabrication was on track, with delivery to Kariba expected by September 2026.
The episode highlights a structural vulnerability MPs heard about in detail. Critical turbine components can only be sourced from the original manufacturer. Procurement cycles are long. Payment is in hard currency.
On top of this, water allocation fees due to the Zambezi River Authority are also payable in foreign currency. Together, these obligations weigh heavily on ZESA’s foreign exchange position – a pressure point the utility warned will require sustained policy and financial support.
The committee also revisited the 300 MW Stage 2 expansion commissioned in 2018, delivered by Sinohydro under an Engineering, Procurement and Construction contract of roughly US$350 million. Ninety percent was financed through a concessional two percent-interest loan from a Chinese bank, with ZESA covering the balance. Loan repayment was due in June 2024.
Diversifying Beyond The Dam Wall
With climate variability placing a hard ceiling on how much hydropower Kariba can reliably deliver, ZESA’s strategy is to spread its bets. MPs were briefed on plans to develop up to 500 MW of solar generation across about ten sites countrywide.
Coal remains in the mix. Hwange Units 9 and 10 have been commissioned, while Units 11 and 12 are at planning stage alongside private-sector led renewable investments.
Hon Mhangwa drew the line between generation and lived reality:
“As we pursue additional generation capacity, equal emphasis is being placed on strengthening and modernising our transmission and distribution infrastructure to ensure that the benefits of increased generation are fully realised by consumers across the country.”
Network faults and ageing lines continue to cause outages even when power is available at source. Theft and vandalism – a scourge across all five of ZPC’s regional operations – add another layer of risk. Chinaka’s presentation outlined mitigation efforts, from smart metering and transformer replacement programmes to targeted enforcement.
FFA Explainer:
Transmission moves bulk power from stations like Kariba South to major load centres via high-voltage lines. Distribution takes power from these nodes down to homes, shops, and farms through lower-voltage networks. Weaknesses in either system can cause outages, even when there is enough generation.
Tariffs, Hidden Costs And The Hwange Headache
During the question-and-answer session that followed the briefings, MPs turned first to the economics of electricity. The committee heard that hydropower from Kariba South costs about 2.04 US cents per kilowatt-hour to generate – among the cheapest electrons in the region. ZPC’s blended production cost, once higher-cost thermal and solar are factored in, is significantly above that. By the time electricity reaches households and businesses, the tariff is around 16 US cents per kilowatt-hour.
For several MPs, the gap between production cost and final tariff – swollen by transmission and distribution costs, system losses, imports, and debt service – felt like a “black box” that needed unpicking.
The ZESA answer was blunt. Hydropower’s low cost is being diluted by an ageing thermal fleet, especially at Hwange, where overdue rehabilitation has pushed costs sharply up.
Power stations are typically designed for 20–30 years before a full overhaul. Go much beyond that, and every megawatt-hour gets more expensive.
“You produce X dollars and sell Y dollars and make a loss,” Matarutse told the committee. One Hwange unit has already been shut because its production cost became unsustainable.
On tariffs overall, ZESA stressed the need for a blended structure that reflects the reality of El Niño years. When water is scarce and thermal must step in, costs rise, and tariffs must cover the difference if the utility is to remain solvent.
“You can’t let go the human resources that we have during that period,” Matarutse added, arguing that retaining skilled engineers through lean hydrological years is non-negotiable if Zimbabwe is to respond when the rains return.
Why Turbine Runners Take Four Years
Hon Mhangwa, himself an engineer and MP for Chinhoyi, pressed some of the day’s most technical questions. Noting that each turbine at Kariba South produces about 125 MW, he asked why Zimbabwe was still working at that scale when modern hydro units elsewhere deliver up to 800 MW each.
The answer lies in Kariba’s birth certificate. Designed and built in the 1950s and 1960s, the station’s civil works – penstocks, powerhouse cavern, scroll casings – were engineered around turbines of that size. Any replacement runner must match those dimensions to hair-thin tolerances.
The Stage 2 expansion, commissioned in 2018, added units shaped by the same physical constraints. Installing the kind of giant turbines seen at mega-projects such as China’s Three Gorges would, in practical terms, mean building an entirely new powerhouse and water conveyance system somewhere else – a different project, not an upgrade.
When Mhangwa quipped that a turbine going to Brazil in 2022 and returning in 2026 sounded “grotesque”, he was pointing to a deeper concern: dependence on foreign manufacturers for critical spares.
The ZESA response was sober but hopeful. An internal training initiative with Kafue Gorge Training Centre is under way, aimed at building design capacity within ZESA. Some engineers were attached to design institutes during the Hwange 7 and 8 expansion to gain first-hand experience in plant design.
“We are not at the point where we can say we can design our own turbine,” management conceded, “but it is a process.”
Regional Lines, Wheeling Power And Zimbabwe’s Strategic Position
Mhangwa also pushed on Zimbabwe’s role in the regional grid, asking whether transmission lines from both banks of Kariba to the Copperbelt are adequate to import power from the Democratic Republic of Congo or export north.
The question goes to the heart of Zimbabwe’s role in the Southern African Power Pool. As a central node, the country already facilitates power wheeling – allowing electricity to transit between northern and southern producers and consumers.
The committee heard that transmission expansion is among ZESA’s strategic priorities, but that the specific adequacy of the Kariba–Copperbelt corridor for future DRC volumes requires detailed technical analysis. MPs made it clear they want those plans presented as a structured pipeline of projects they can track and support.
Debt, Vehicles And A New Billing Era
Hon Wilson Maposa, MP for Chimanimani West, raised a cluster of hard-hitting but grounded concerns. Top of the list: the roughly US$300 million owed to ZESA by customers, a debt stock that chokes the utility’s ability to fund capital works.
Then came the question that technicians in depots across the country know too well – vehicles. ZESA needs about 1,422 vehicles to service its infrastructure properly; current numbers fall far short. That shortfall leaves crews unable to reach faults promptly, lengthening outages.
“You are producing a lot of ZESA, yet you are losing that ZESA,” Maposa said, using the everyday shorthand for electricity to capture the frustration of power generated but lost to technical and commercial inefficiencies.
He suggested exploring hire-purchase arrangements to build up the fleet without demanding large upfront cash outlays – a proposal framed as a practical fix, not a political jab. The committee signalled it wants a detailed plan.
On debt recovery, ZESA pointed to ongoing collection drives and the new ZOOM billing platform, which went live on 4 February 2026. Co-developed between ZESA technicians and software partners, ZOOM has experienced teething problems – described as a predictable “burning period” for a system handling huge transaction volumes.
Software upgrades are scheduled through mid-July 2026, after which performance is expected to stabilise. Management insists the platform is a step up from its predecessor in throughput and complexity.
FFA Explainer:
Modern utility billing systems like ZOOM must process millions of transactions accurately and in real time – from prepaid token purchases to post-paid invoices. Weak systems can misallocate payments, fail to flag non-payment, or crash under peak loads, undermining both customer trust and revenue collection.
Vandalism As Economic Sabotage
Perhaps the most charged moment came when Hon Exavier Maoneke, MP for Chivi Central, rose to outline a parliamentary motion he is preparing.
After hearing earlier about the scale of theft and vandalism – copper conductors stripped, transformers looted, underground cables dug up – Maoneke argued that the law must change.
His planned motion will urge the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Home Affairs to amend the Electricity Act and the Criminal Law Act so that vandalism of energy infrastructure is treated as economic sabotage, not petty theft.
He wants harmonised, tougher sentencing, including a mandatory minimum 12-year term and the possibility of life imprisonment for aggravated cases involving syndicates or incidents leading to deaths or severe economic damage. The motion will also call on the Ministry of Mines to ban scrap metal exports and reconsider copper processing licences, cutting off the commercial lifeline that makes cable theft profitable.
“Any attack on this infrastructure is a direct attack on the economy, public health and national security,” Maoneke said. “We should call these acts of economic sabotage.”
Hon Mhangwa welcomed the initiative and invited ZESA to provide detailed loss data, incident records, and economic impact estimates to strengthen the case when the motion reaches the House.
On the operational front, MPs heard that ZESA currently operates eight short-range drones for line inspection and anti-vandalism patrols, with eight long-range drones on order to improve monitoring of remote stretches.
Fault-Finding Machines, Nuclear Dreams And Governance Questions
In a line of questioning that drew knowing smiles from engineers, one MP tackled the recurring excuse often given at the customer interface: “the fault-finding machine is in another city.”
He wanted to know whether ZESA actually owns enough cable fault-locating equipment, or whether the elusive “machine in Victoria Falls” is sometimes a convenient myth used to explain long repair delays.
ZESA confirmed that equipment is indeed a constraint, particularly in Harare and Bulawayo, where underground cable networks are dense. About ten new cable fault-finding machines are being procured for deployment by the end of 2026. Management also clarified that ZETDC carries out fault location free of charge, and any demand for payment is contrary to policy.
Hon Maoneke turned later to nuclear energy – a topic slowly surfacing in Zimbabwe’s long-term energy debates. Engineer Matarutse’s reply was frank about timelines.
“It takes about 15 years for you to realise a nuclear power station from when you decide to go ahead with nuclear,” he said. The first formal engagement between Zimbabwe and the International Atomic Energy Agency took place about two months before the Kariba visit, convened by the Minister of Energy.
The road is long because nuclear power demands an entire institutional ecosystem – an independent regulator, specialised legislation, site selection, and deep national technical capacity. Zimbabwe has uranium deposits and some is exported, including to Europe, where it contributes to nuclear generation. Whether the country should convert that endowment into domestic nuclear power is a legitimate question, but, as Matarutse put it, a 2040s question rather than a 2026 one.
Hon Darlington Chigumbu, MP for Budiriro South, pressed on financing and governance. He asked why ZESA was not drawing more visibly on the Mutapa Investment Fund – the state holding entity and shareholder in ZESA Holdings, ZPC, and the Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company – to support recapitalisation.
ZESA described the relationship with Mutapa as positive and active, with several capital interventions already supported, and agreed that a more detailed briefing on the financial structure would help Parliament track how Mutapa is being used to address infrastructure gaps.
On Kariba Hydro Power Company (KHPC), MPs heard that it operates as a Special Purpose Vehicle created to raise and manage the Stage 2 expansion loan. KHPC owns the Kariba South assets, while ZPC runs the station under an Operation and Maintenance Agreement.
Women In The Control Room, Bulawayo’s Hopes And Real CSI
Gender representation in senior management came under scrutiny from Hon Chigumbu. With just one woman visible in the management team presented, representation falls short of the 30 percent benchmark under national policy. ZESA acknowledged the shortfall and said recruitment and succession planning are being sharpened, with MPs indicating they will revisit the issue in future engagements.
Bulawayo’s MPs brought a question that is as much emotional as technical: what is the future of Bulawayo Power Station? The plant is more than machinery; it is part of the city’s identity. ZESA undertook to provide a formal briefing on its status, options for rehabilitation, and any discussions around repurposing or transfer. The committee committed to relay a clear, documented position back to Bulawayo’s residents.
On Corporate Social Investment (CSI), Hon Mhangwa delivered a gentle but pointed reminder. Many of the projects cited – clinics, libraries, support services – seemed directed primarily at employees.
“CSI should talk to what you do for people outside the organisation,” he said, suggesting that the next ambulance procurement might include one dedicated to the surrounding community, rather than constant borrowing of the station’s own vehicle. The idea drew smiles from the engineers, but also underscored a serious point about community relations around strategic assets.
From Kariba To The Farm Gate
For farmers across Zimbabwe, from irrigated plots along the Mazowe to dryland holdings in Matabeleland South, what happens in rooms like Kariba’s Demonstration Room filters down as a simple reality: is there power for the borehole pump, the cold room, the mill?
Zimbabwe’s National Development Strategy 1 (NDS1) and the African Union’s Agenda 2063 both rest on a basic promise – that productive sectors, especially agriculture, will have reliable, affordable energy. The exchanges at Kariba South showed how fragile and complex that promise is, yet also how determined both Parliament and ZESA appear to be to protect it.
As MPs and engineers exchanged contact details for constituency-specific follow-up – rural electrification delays in Mount Darwin, unenergised lines in Hwange, long outstanding connections on the outskirts of Harare – Hon Mhangwa framed Parliament’s role clearly:
“Our work as Parliament is mainly to help you achieve what you need to achieve. This is an opportunity for you as ZESA to show us where you need, possibly, policy help from Parliament.”
Engineer Matarutse echoed the sentiment: “We hope that this relationship will continue, and that people will ever be there to support us.”
The formal session closed with a line from ZESA’s written address that captured the morning’s spirit: “The biggest rule in a power station is not the powers – it is the room for improvement. We stand ready to receive your comments.”
Outside, the hum of the turbines carried on – steady, invisible, essential. Inside, lawmakers and engineers had done something that reports and memos rarely manage: they had shared the same problems in the same room, and begun – line by high-voltage line – to turn technical complexity into political will.
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