Mnangagwa Warns Power Infrastructure Vandals

President Emmerson has warned and cautioned power infrastructure vandals while he was commissioning a power line connecting the Zimbabwe National Defence University (ZNDU) to Pomona sub-station.

Speaking during the graduation of 114 graduands at the Zimbabwe National Defence University (ZNDU) Thursday, Mnangagwa said the power vandalism is on its highest peak and the nation must work hard to put an end to it.

In bid to fight power vandalism, in May Cabinet approved the Electricity Amendment Bill that advocates for stiffer penalties without an option of paying fine to perpetrators of electricity infrastructure vandalism.

“It is disturbing to note that while concrete investments are being made to broaden our electricity generation and distribution matrix, the scourge of vandalism of national power infrastructure is on the rise.

“I call upon the nation and communities across all districts and provinces to raise their security consciousness and safeguard our national infrastructure.

“Equally, the Zimbabwe Republic Police and other stakeholders are challenge to scale up their operations to flush out criminal elements who vandalise national infrastructure,” said Mnangagwa.

He went on to urge communities to expose the perpetrators to law enforcement agencies.

“At this stage of or development epoch, communities must never harbour criminal elements. It is important that our social institutions, right from the family level, scale up the nurturing of honest individual who revere the virtues of individual and collective responsibility guided by the values of Ubuntu/Hunhu.

“On its part, my Governmnet will continue tightening the legal instruments and other deterrent measure to curb the vandalism of national infrastructure,” he said.

Mnangagwa added that the commissioning of the power line is to facilitate the university with uninterrupted power supply to facilitate research.

“Reliable power supply across all sectors of the economy provides impetus to sustain both the forward and backward linkages which are important for industrial and other productive activities and services. In regard, this power line is set to facilitate the University’s access to uninterrupted power supply to facilitate research, teaching and learning.”