HWANGE – The Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) has handed over 26 more homesteads to families that were forced to vacate their ancestral land to make way for setting up of high voltage power lines under the Hwange Unit 7 and 8 expansion projects.
Addressing stakeholders at the handover ceremony at Hope Fountain, Matabeleland North on Wednesday, Energy and Power Development minister Soda Zhemu thanked the affected persons for leaving their land to make way for a project set to add 600MW to the national grid.
“Ladies and gentlemen, while working on this project, 72 households had to be relocated to pave way for the construction of new 310 kilometre high voltage transmission line intended at evacuating the power generated by the two new units to Insukamini,” he said.
“Given the foregoing, l am pleased to note that today, we have 26 families who will become new owners of state-of-art homesteads built under the Hwange 7 and 8 Expansion project.
“This brings to 38, the total number of houses handed over to the affected persons, following the initial handover of 12 homesteads at Epping Forest in February 2022…”
In a speech delivered on his behalf by Zimbabwe Power Company managing director Engineer Nobert Matarutse, ZESA executive chairman Sydney Gata said building homes for affected persons commenced in 2019.
“We are in this endeavour constructing 72 complete homesteads with a kitchen, ablution facilities, domestic animal kraals, among other basic necessities in a rural home, along the 310 kilomitres of our new power line corridor,” he said.
The ZESA boss said the project involved constructing 29 houses at Mazwi , 9 at Hope Fountain, 10 at Heany Farm, 3 at Kloof Farm, 4 at Stevenson Farm, 11 at Epping Forest, 1 at Sawmills and 5 at Gwayi siding, Bambanani Village and Chezhou.”
He said among those displaced were marginalised groups such as widows and orphans.
