Declare a force majeure to completely stop exporting power, says  Nawakwi

By NATION REPORTER 

GOVERNMENT should declare a force majeure to cancel the export of electricity to neighbouring countries because the country is facing a serious power deficit, Forum for Democracy and Development (FDD) President Edith Nawakwi has said.

Ms Nawakwi in an interview said President Hakainde Hichilema should cut all contracts and declare a force majeure since Zambia was in a crisis as it could not supply the power to its neighbours due to its situation of low water levels at Kariba dam.

She said that the solution was to tell Namibia that Zambia would stop exporting because of greater force that is preventing the government to export power to foreign countries.

Ms Nawakwi said it was unfortunate that the UPND was apportioning blame on the previous regime when the signing of the Namibia power deal was done in 2022 long after the PF had left office.

She said that the issue of power blackouts was as a result of the president apportioning 300 megawatts to Namibia while also allowing Zimbabwe to use water apportioned for Zambia just to appease his friend, President Emmerson Mnangagwa.

“President Hichilema has sacrificed the nation by giving out water to Zimbabwe for free at the expense of many Zambians mostly business people who risked losing out,” she said. 

Ms Nawakwi said that it was unacceptable for President Hichilema to punish Zambians over petty cash which they would get from the export of electricity.

Ms Nawakwi said that when the PF was leaving office it left over 1, 000 megawatts of power generation and that it was shocking that the country was still grappling with the issue of load shedding.

She said the president and his cabinet needed to apologise to Zambians for the lies which were now catching up with them.

She said the economy was collapsing and if nothing was done to rectify the power outages then the country would face serious consequences.

Ms Nawakwi said that the hospitals were also crippled as people now risked dying because those that were on machines were in danger as once power was cut off it would spell doom for the country.

She also said the economy was in shambles as the health and agriculture sector was riddled with problems as drug shortages were rampant.

She said that the agriculture sector was similar as farmers did not receive farming inputs on time which is likely to result in hunger.