Zambia was plunged into darkness Monday night in what appeared to be the second nationwide power outage in three days.
The electricity network went down at about 7:30 p.m. and was restored about four hours later. There was no immediate explanation for the blackout.
On Saturday, Zambia was without electricity for about eight hours, leaving more than 300 miners temporarily trapped underground in the country’s Copperbelt province. It was not immediately known if any miners had been trapped underground Monday night.
The ZESCO said there had been a “high voltage” occurrence on the network, but was still investigating. It also was unclear if the second blackout was caused by the same problem or if the outages were connected to regional problems with electricity supply.
And ZNBC said about 300 miners on night shifts at units of Konkola Copper Mines (KCM) and Mopani Copper Mines (MCM) were trapped in shafts for hours after power went off.
The power outage also caused partial flooding at Chililabombwe copper mine, a unit of KCM, as water could not be pumped out, officials said.
Luanshya Copper Mines (LCM) Chief Executive Officer Derek Webbstock said operations at the mine were suspended after power went off while equipment was damaged.
“We lost a day’s production and that is 75 tonnes of copper and 89 tonnes of cobalt. Our net loss is $2 million because the switch and associated electrical equipment were damaged at the mine,” Webbstock told Reuters.
Miners at KCM’s Chililabombwe and Mopani Nkana mines were trapped for several hours after the power disruption.
“The good thing is it happened on a weekend when our production is not very much. We also responded quickly and there were no fatalities,” said Passmore Hamukoma, Mopani’s spokesman.
Chililabombwe mine suffered some flooding after water could not be pumped out due to the power failure, while KCM, Zambia’s largest copper producer, was still assessing the amount of loss.
Bwana Mkubwa Mine, a unit of Canada’s First Quantum Minerals said it stopped copper production for 16 hours due to the power failure, but gave no details of the loss in output.
The mines re-started after Copperbelt Energy (CEC) imported emergency power from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Zambia’s Daily Mail said.
Officials say water utilities switched off pumps to protect them from damage as the capital Lusaka and most urban areas experienced water shortages into Sunday.
Mwanawasa is always preaching about fighting corruption; isnt it some form of corruption to keep sisala at zesco just becoz he’s related to maureen mwanawasa? The guy doesnt seem to be in control of anything. The company seems to have no leadership, thats why a director who is supposed to be in charge of power distribution can be allowed to fly out of the country the day after the country is plunged into darkness.
The situation is very serious, two National Blackouts in less than twenty-four hours is not something that someone should sit back and smile about. Stringent measures should be taken now so that this situation does not turn into a catastrophe. A lot is at steak.
Zambia 3 Sudan 0
Whether you believe it or not!!!
Firstly, Sisala must go. In certain areas of the world CEO,s wud resign on moral grounds to perve way for investigations. Sisala has never been a performer even from where he comes from. Immediately Levy came into power, this non-perfomer by the name of Sisala automatically became CEO because of the family tree. Where on earth can you run a country like a small Ntemba? Zambians have been taken for granted for a very long time. 2 major blackouts and the head of state is quiet…..This is serious.
There’s something wrong with the Zesco Mgt which needs to be resolved at the earliest. One of the solution could be change of leadership. The COY needs focussed leaderS………..AND NOT Sisala who’s just sitting on the position like a pumpkin while the nation is loosing out ecionomically.This happened at a time when there was an interesting Afcon fixture btween Nigeria and ivory coast.
Hallo christopher M.
I think this shud be the guy i know.
Well men of faith and courage.I think those black outs shud be sorely investigated.Another thing could be an indication that,a new coy has to image,that uses other sources of power e,g nuclear, solar etc.Not only hydro as we are heading into a world which depresses the water levels.About Sisala,i know him not. so,,no comments:
OOOPS what a mess.ichalo chonse icha zed in darkness?
Someone needs to be answerable there,,really.
God bless zed
Its not pa Zed only. South Africa has been affected by power outages for past 2 weeks hitting the economy hard. Load shedding is the order of the day and ESKOM has indicated that the problem will persist for some time sending fears that the economy would go into recession. The kick off for the Mali vs Benin at AFCON was delayed for about 30mins last night due to power failure. May be it is a universal problem, who knows.
Ha ha ha, its not only in Africa. If you remember 2004/05 I think, New York was plunged in darkness, were we given conclusive investigations of what happened, i Cannot remember, but a few heads rolled. If I was Sisala I would have resigned on moral grounds or even committed suicide like the chinaman who used to work for Mattel. What is the lesson for us, gentlemen this is a lesson for us and it is not time to play, we have to do what is right for the country and do not think that someone is-Cont
going to do our job, If I sisala seriously, I would have two priorities. First I know that the generation equipment including all the infrastructure is quite old, that would be priority number one. Number two I would target that all standby teams where ZESCO is spending so much paying overtime would have regular hours and reduce the standby teams because once I have updated my infrastructure then I can sustained power supply without these funny outages. RN Pretoria let us not compete to be at
the bottom if pretoria has not power it is no justification for us not to have power it is like competing to be at the bottom which is very african. And did I see something on SABC International this morning calling for industries to reduce on their energy consumption an appeal made by ESKOM, I would have thought they would have said we are looking at ways of increasing energy supply to meet the demand by Industry. AFRICANS!
Hai Lubasi David…I am the Chris u know from way back from St. Johns. The critical issue is that we should change the heads of such sensitive departments of the country like ZESCO. We the young with briliant ideas are denied access to decission making in this country. I have travelled at least within the SADC region and if i compare zambia with just botswana, we are very far in terms of development. We are not focussed and all we do is kneel b4 the president even if he is wrong.Wake up Zambia!!
Hai Lubasi David…I am the Chris u know from way back from St. Johns. The critical issue is that we should change the heads of such sensitive departments of the country like ZESCO. We the young with briliant ideas are denied access to decission making in this country. I have travelled at least within the SADC region and if i compare zambia with just botswana, we are very far in terms of development. We are not focussed and all we do is kneel b4 the president even if he is wrong.Wake up Zambia!!
ZAMBIA THE REAL AFRICA
SA’s power problems could be different from ours coz they have had it for two weeks obviously. Ours in perenial and have the same causes. We need to find a solution to this problem once and for all. No games, this 21st Century.
If there was a black out in New York does not mean there should be blackout in Zambia. It is a very lame analysis. Why dont petrol cost K3000 in Zambia because it may cost K2500 per liter in New York or elsewhere. What we are saying is that Sisala resigns or get fired and we put people who can deliver and give us good service. ZESCO is ours.
It is easy to know what caused the black out just as we fault find in the home it is the same thing even with the National grid. Dont cheat us, resign!
I am wondering why Sisala should be fired. Did we know Botwana, Zimbabwe and south Africa is having the same problem in the recent past? You see, what if it is IMF/World Bank doing this so that the justify the sell of ZESCO? Is anyone thinking and looking at it in that way? Even if SIsala was fired 2day the problem is beyond him.If Sisala has to go then it a matter of cleaning the attire Zesco company. Check the people working there.
Lets look at the problem critically…….
Let Chuchu also resign 4 appointing wrong *****s
What is happening in Zambia (i.e. blackouts) is not about power deficit like the other contries you’re talking about which is a different issue, but incompetency thats why we are saying Sisala must go coz he’s the one bringing incompetency in Zesco and from the look of things the employs are feed up with Sisala.
Sisala Zwaa
This is anacceptable!What sisala and the entire Zesco EEs are being paid for,we do not know.Zesco is failing to give us a satisfactory service and something needs to be done ASAP..I wonder if we will watch our Team play 2nite.
The power outages have nothing to do with Sisala, not that i am sticking out my head for him but it’s something that has to be investigated before measures can be put in place to prevent reoccurrence. And surely two days is not enough time to carry out conclusive investigations to identify the problem. ZESCO has been known for providing shoddy service but this is beyond everyone – give them chance to carry out their investigations and then we can critise or call for blood.
…and these MMD politicians are saying the country is been misinformed when we complain about this and other ills of our beloved country through a phone-in programme on radio. They’ve even banned the programme…very disgusting.
Everyone advocating for my dismisal are just wasting their time.I am the main trunk of the Mwanawasa family tree.I`ll only resign after 2011.
The issue about zambia’s power outages are in no way related to South Africa or indeed New York. One fact is that Zambia exports more electricity than many other countries in the region yet fails to satisfy it’s own local demands.Interestingly,the country is blessed with huge amount of water resources which could be used for power generation. The main issue here could be either zesco has obsolete equipment or simply poor management
Anonymous 23 the latter is truem fish starts to rot from the head, so SISAL zwaa, this is a culmination, even if the current problem is beyond ZESCO what about the frequent so called load sheds when we are on the other hand complaining about floods, in 1989 there used to be load shedding and ZESCO had advertised in the paper a schedule of who, what areas would have load shedding on which days etc, and that was perfect, and the reasons, low water levels, that was plausible. But do you see that
under Sisala and his cohorts, no you do not. I mean if we really have a power shortage let it be explicit and explained to the consumers. I visited KNB not long ago 2005 and they were telling us they can generate power to satisfy the whole region. I do not understand why we think withholding information from consumers is always the earsier way out. This happens in a lot of spheres of life in our country. Guys I have issues, thanks be to the forum!
The problem is not Sasala but who appointed him.When Mwansa was MD both Kariba north and zesco did we had any stupid management probs not at all coz he was a man of his workforce and pipo were assured of good results.Remember the SADAC head of states comference black out. No contigent plans, no vision and values to run a vital company. Shame the govt for political appointments on keys and vital companies that need brainy pipo to run.Can we survive in this unpresented climate with no directions?
The problem is not Sasala but who appointed him.When Mwansa was MD both Kariba north and zesco did we had any stupid management probs not at all coz he was a man of his workforce and pipo were assured of good results.Remember the SADAC head of states comference black out. No contigent plans, no vision and values to run a vital company. Shame the govt for political appointments on key and vital companies that need brainy pipo to run.Can we survive in this unpresented climate with no directions?
The recent blackouts are as a result of gross mismanagement and lack of planning.People knew about this a long time ago but were just waiting for a disaster to happen,something we have gotten used to in Zambia.Please even if sisala is a relative of maureen save us the trouble.
Chuchu and Mrs Chuchu’s relative Sisala SWAA!!
GROSS INCOPETENCE ON THIS SCALE SHOULD HAVE ONLY ONE REWARD -INSTANT DISMISSAL.
It can be observed from the majority’s view that the problems at Zesco lies in mismanagement brought about by the current ones. So if this is a general view why is it that the powers that be can not see this and do a clean up before things get much worse? Maybe they’re going by #22’s comment.
#22 Your boasting will not take you away my dear, it’s just a matter of time, you will soon go in dungeon immediately after 2011 for injustice you are doing to the zedian pipo together with your uncle in marriage Chuchu, the ilenda boy.
we should not compare ourselves with other failures. why should we compete to be at the bottom? Thanks Mwiinga.Information is inside formation. To be informed is to be transformed. To be unformed is to be deformed. fire the chap for not informing the Nation about the blackouts.
The companies have gone to dogs. lelo lelo
369 KCM, Mopani miners trapped in cages
OVER three hundred miners were on Saturday night trapped in cages at both Mopani Copper Mines (MCM) and Konkola Copper Mines (KCM) due to power failure, which was experienced countrywide. Mineworkers Union of Zambia (MUZ) general secretary, Oswell Munyenyembe confirmed the development in Kitwe yesterday. Mr Munyenyembe said about 369 miners were trapped in the cages and were only evacuated yesterday around 06:00 hours.
Mr Munyenyembe said the union was concerned about the safety of the miners because once they were trapped, ventilation underground got affected. Mr Munyenyembe said there was need to seriously investigate and establish what led to the power failure.
He said 179 miners were trapped at Konkola, 90 at Mindolo North and 100 at South Ore Body, Nkana.
Sisala should be fired, even if he has a link to the first family.
he is totally incompetent.
i agree with luwi. since this guy came into power mismanagement and luck of foresight has been their trade mark. am a physicist myself, i cant even start talking about nuclear energy with this kind of administration.
The problem is that Mwanawasa does not learn. Remember the chaos at Zamtel more than a year ago when he appointed a green-horn relative in the name of Mutesha? The company went to dogs, until the workers rioted. Mutesha may have been a green-horn but Sisala is not only daft but he knows next to nothing about Zesco. So simply Zwaaa
Twakokola Naba Sisala (scissors)!!
This is gross incompetence and lack forsight. This is how *****ic nepotism can ruin a country. We have lost billions economically and Mwanawasa thinks Kakocha? Zambians are not foolish or dull so dont take our peaceful nature for granted.
Heads must roll at ZESCO. Mismanagement has reached electrifying proportions at this utility company. enough is must surely be enough!
Zebige are u around? Nga ba Joze?? na Rufgua, I miss those days!!
#3 Born Rich Uli ndoshi!!
The recent power blackouts in zambia (and other countries around the world )may have little to do with the Sisala, Mwanawasa etc but largely due to the growing middle class population, the booming China economy.The demand on electricity is too large, the current infrastructure and technologies are not coping.So perhaps we need you genuises out there to come up with an alternative enviromentally friendly way of producing electricity.Yes perhaps more use of solar energy.n’est-ce pas?
#3 Born Rich you are phophet of the moment.
#3 Born Rich, you need a prize!
What is happening to our mother country. Being a zambian nurse working in uk i am really concerned about the electricity situations, especially in hospitals and the morgue. I just hope hopitals are not affected
hey Mwiinga…you ever go to school in Buffalo….?
i doubt