By Staff Reporter
Property owners in Harare have been ordered to trim or cut down overgrown trees as they now pose a risk to power lines.
In a statement yesterday, Harare Provincial Development Coordinator, Tafadzwa Muguti, said failure to cut down trees that will result in the damage of power lines will now attract a hefty penalty.
“The office of the Provincial Development Coordinator for Harare Metropolitan Province in collaboration with the Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission Distribution Company (ZETDC) would like to announce that with immediate effect all residents are to ensure that they trim or cut trees that have overgrown and are now posing a risk to power lines. In recent weeks, many trees have fallen on power lines causing unwarranted power outages,” said Muguti.
Muguti said Harare Northern suburbs residents were refusing to cut down trees and allowing ZETDC engineers to gain access to their properties.
“In particular, Harare Northern suburbs are the most non-compliant as many home owners are refusing to cut trees and refusing ZETDC engineers to gain access to their properties ,whilst illegal settlements across all Districts are building structures along power servitudes,” added Muguti.
Mr Muguti further said that failure to cut trees that will eventually damage power lines will result in the property owner being charged a hefty fine by ZETDC.
“To ensure full compliance by all residents, kindly note that from 16th of February 2021, failure to cut trees or building structures which will eventually damage power lines will result in the property owner being slapped with a hefty penalty by ZETDC. The property owner will be responsible for the full cost of repairs, labour and fuel costs incurred by ZETDC in repairing the power line,” he said.
Muguti also urged all local authorities to cut down trees that have overgrown and clear all illegal structures in power servitudes.
Since the start of the rainy season, a lot of ZETDC infrastructure was damaged by overgrown trees that fell on power lines causing some suburbs to go for many weeks without power.
