ZESA pays electrocuted boy US$19 000 compensation

The Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) Holdings has forked out more than US$19 000 as compensation to a 13-year-old boy who sustained severe burns after being electrocuted by naked power cables five years ago.

The 13 year-old minor child was left nursing extensive injuries to his
right upper limbs including permanent and irreversible injuries, which he suffered due to electrocution in April 2019 while medical doctors estimated his impairment percentage at 20 percent.

The minor child’s parents were assisted by Kevin Kabaya and Tatenda Sigauke of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, who on 16 September 2022, wrote a letter of demand to Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company (ZETDC), a subsidiary of ZESA Holdings, demanding payment amounting to more than US$19 000 as compensation for
damages suffered by the 13 year-old child.

ZLHR confirmed the development:

“The state-run power utility, ZESA Holdings, has forked out more than US$19 000 as compensation for damages to a minor child, who was electrocuted & sustained severe electrical burns owing to gross negligence by the electricity supplier of electricity & to deter and discourage acts of human rights violations by state-run institutions.

“ZLHR has previously intervened in similar cases of ZESA Holdings’ negligence, which shows the dangerous levels of carelessness prevailing at the state-run power utility & which in some instances have resulted in deaths & injuries to several people across the country.”

Zwnews