NamPower's Managing Director (MD), Kahenge Haulofu, on Tuesday said the media has been misusing the term 'load-shedding' in the recent coverage of the power utility’s debt collection plan that was re-introduced through a public notice last week.

Haulofu during a media briefing on Tuesday, explained that the debt collection plan, which is a scheduled disconnection of electricity supply to defaulting customers, is a re-introduction of a debt collection plan and debt repayment incentive that was first introduced in 2021 and it is not load-shedding.

“There has been a lot of misinterpretation of terms by the media and the public in relation to the suspension of electricity supply to NamPower customers with overdue accounts.

The debt collection plan and repayment incentive are NamPower's efforts in reaching an understanding between default customers in paying their outstanding accounts,” he clarified.

He added that with NamPower's Power Supply Agreements, the company has the right to totally disconnect the electricity supply to defaulting customers, hence the resolution to introduce the debt collection plan.

According to the MD, several other measures were explored before reaching the conclusion of introducing the debt collection plan that will be implemented on 05 June and will affect customers who fail to pay their overdue accounts by 31 May.

The disconnection of electricity supply to defaulting customers will be divided into stages starting with stage one and escalating to stage nine.

Meanwhile, Haulofu emphasised that NamPower has received no pressure from their bilateral partner, Eskom and that the load-shedding in South Africa (SA) has to date not posed a need for Namibia to panic.

He concluded by saying that Namibia only receives 100 megawatts of electricity from SA while its largest supplier is Zambia with 180 megawatts of electricity.

Source: The Namibian Press Agency