Great Zimbabwe Hydropower Project Energizes Masvingo Province

By Regina Pasipanodya

As the opening of a new semester approaches in February, Ellen Chisango, a student at Masvingo Teachers College, cannot wait to go back to the campus to continue with her studies.

For her last semester was unbearable due to extensive power cuts at the college.

But today the student teacher is eagerly waiting to experience an uninterrupted electricity supply after the completion of the Great Zimbabwe Hydro-electric power station at Lake Mutirikwi after experiencing excessive load shedding last year.

“Last semester, I do not remember when we had Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) powered electricity. We would go as far as two weeks without electricity and this affected our studies as we would rely on solar power,” Chisango told Zimba Wave News.

New electricity power station

However, the completion of the Great Zimbabwe Hydroelectric power station along Lake Mutirikwi could bring significant benefits to students like Chisango who need electricity to study and the whole of Masvingo Province which has been experiencing severe blackouts.

Speaking to journalists during a media tour, Minister of State for Provincial Affairs and Devolution for Masvingo Province, Hon. Ezra Chadzamira said the establishment of the hydro-electric power in Masvingo has for the past three months proved its efficiency as it managed to eliminate load shedding in the Central Business District.

The operation started in November last year.

“The power station has been operating for about 3 months now and has transformed and lit up Masvingo CBD because since then we had never experienced load shedding in town,” said Hon. Chadzamira.

The project is one of the flagship initiatives of the Second Republic as part of the devolution policy.

“Because of the devolution policy, Masvingo Province is now generating much of its electricity. Since its operation, the power station has been supplying 5MW into the ZESA grid as a supplement to the 2MW from the National Grid.”

“This means that much of our electricity is now generated locally and I am confident that as Masvingo soon we will be exporting electricity to other provinces,” added Hon. Chadzamira

National Power Crisis

Zimbabwe’s power supply has been inadequate for years as the country’s electricity company struggled to generate enough electricity for usage and Masvingo was not spared.

Last year, Masvingo was described as the worst affected urban area for experiencing a 17-hour load shedding schedule from 0500 hrs to 2200 hrs.

In October 2024, Masvingo urban MP, Martin Mureri wrote a protesting letter to ZESA demanding fair distribution of electricity for all provinces after an observation was made that their town was only getting electricity for seven hours or less.

However, the electricity supplier has always made it public and sometimes apologized to members of the public for challenges that they were facing due to failures or dilapidation of infrastructure at the national electricity power stations.

On the other side the Kariba Dam, which has long been the backbone of the nation’s energy production, has been suffering from decreasing water levels due to the El Nino-induced drought.

The nation’s thermal plants also are struggling to meet the demand.

However, the establishment of the hydroelectric power station in Masvingo will go a long way in supplying electricity to the province and has managed to address power cuts in the CBD.

This project started on 9 March 2022 and started operating last year in November.

In an interview, Plant Manager Engineer Justice Jangano said they have now reached commercial operations and the plant is fully running 24 hours whilst they are still doing housekeeping.

“So far we are generating about 5.2 MW against the 5 MW rating, which means our machines are slightly going above their rating. We are producing 5.2 MW and we are operating 24 hours with three shifts of operators every day,” said Jangano.

Apart from generating electricity, the construction of the hydro-power station also empowered locals through employment opportunities.

More than 50 of the workers were locals.

Masvingo Province is also anticipating to benefit from the Tokwe Mukosi project, sugar cane project in Chiredzi as well as other irrigation projects that seek to promote food security for the locals.