ZESCO Limited (ZESCO) has refuted allegations that it has entered a dubious deal and is paying a named local company to buy and sell power on its behalf.

ZESCO spokesperson Matongo Maumbi has rubbished the assertions circulating in different social media spaces claiming that ZESCO has entered into an expensive deal with the said private company to, among other things, act as an intermediary to purchase and sell power for the state utility company.

Maumbi said there was no truth to the existence of such an arrangement or any donors, cooperating partners, and the International Monetary Fund raising concerns about any transactions ZESCO is involved in because none of that exists.

He stated that to the contrary, private companies, including mining companies, are giving financial support to ZESCO to import power to fill part of the gap left by the loss of domestic generation.

“Everybody knows that ZESCO is struggling financially and the drought has worsened our financial position because we are selling very few units of electricity, so our income is bad. We don’t have the financial capacity to enter such a transaction as alleged, even if it were feasible, which it isn’t. The imports we’ve been able to bring into the market are paid for by private sector power traders and mining companies,” he explained.

He disclosed that in fact, ZESCO was in the process of concluding another arrangement with local and regional private power trader Africa GreenCo to fund an additional tranche of imports.

“We are almost closing with Africa GreenCo to ensure they fund the next phase of imports because the private sector is anchoring these power imports.”

Maumbi also decried what he termed a worrying trend among politicians and other public figures to spread falsehoods, which could potentially harm businesses and individuals.

He advised that in these crisis times, citizens should be engaging in finding workable solutions to the challenges affecting the country instead of ripping good initiatives apart for baseless selfish propaganda.

At a News Diggers-organised public discussion forum on load shedding on Thursday last week, ZESCO Managing Director Victor Mapani appealed to Zambians to get involved in the power sector because the market was open.

He said since open access became operational, foreign traders had swarmed the market while local participants remained absent.