Zimbabwe signed an agreement on Wednesday to import more electricity from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the official ZIANA news agency reported. The DRC is rich in hydro-electric power while its largest military ally, Zimbabwe suffers a deficit of between 800 and 1,000 megawatts, news reports said. Zimbabwe’s Energy and Mines Minister Sydney Sekeramayi said the two countries’ power utility firms, Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) and SNEL in the DRC, would upgrade the pylons that carry the electricity from the DRC to Zimbabwe.
The deal would ensure the security of power supplies and provision of energy to Zimbabwe at sustainable prices, according to ZIANA. Zimbabwe supplements its electricity requirements with imports from South Africa, Mozambique and the DRC, but these have been affected by a crippling foreign currency shortage. In July, state radio reported that President Robert Mugabe and former DRC president Laurent-Desire Kabila had agreed that Zimbabwe would pay for its power imports in Zimbabwe dollars rather than US currency.
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