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Whinsley Masara, Chronicle Reporter
KAMATIVI mining town in Matabeleland North has gone for four months without electricity and water following the theft of copper cables.

More than 1,5 kilometres of copper cables were stolen in Kamativi in May, plunging the area into darkness and disrupting operations at mines, schools, clinics and shops.

Zesa Western Region general manager Engineer Lovemore Chinaka said he was aware of the problem and they were working on fixing it.

He said the power outage was as a result of vandalism of electricity lines by thieves who were stealing copper cables in the area.

“We are actually in the process of acquiring what is needed to replace the stolen copper cables. Our greatest challenge has been that the copper cables thieves kept coming back. We want to warn members of the public against stealing copper cables as they risk spending many years in jail if caught,” he said.

Hwange Rural District Council’s Chief Executive Officer Mr Phindile Ncube said they were working on resuming pumping water to residents.

“Efforts are being made to bring back electricity and once we have power, pumping of water will resume,” he said.

A local Environmental Health Technician said there have been instances of disease outbreaks due to water shortages in the town.

“There are three boreholes in the town and two of them which are both in the high density suburbs are operational. We are appealing to Zesa to deal with this power issue urgently because we cannot continue fetching water from boreholes,” said Mr Peter Mudenda.

In June, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Media, Information and Broadcasting Services, Mr George Charamba, bemoaned the vandalism of power lines saying it was derailing progress.

During a tour in the town, he said copper cable thefts in Kamativi had disrupted radio services and it was proving costly for Government to use generators at transmission sites due to loss of power.

It suspected that most of the copper cables thieves use the stolen cables to make snares for poaching wildlife. — @winnie_masara