ZESA proves changing one man at the top can transform an entire nation

Tendai Ruben Mbofana

Yesterday we had national power blackout in Zimbabwe allegedly caused by a major electrical fault on the Warren–Alaska 330kV transmission line. 

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According to the state-owned power utility, ZESA Holdings, the technical fault occurred at 6:24 PM local time on Monday, 6 July 2026, leading to a complete collapse of the national grid. 

The blackout lasted for nearly four hours. 

Engineers started restoration efforts almost immediately, and power was successfully returned to most bulk supply points across the country by 10:00 PM on Monday night. 

In fact some areas in the country had power restored in as little as two hours.

This was an outstanding achievement by the power utility – considering that this is the establishment that had presided over more than a decade of crippling power cuts, in most cases lasting an average 18 hours each day. 

However this year alone, the country has gone for more than 188 consecutive days of uninterrupted power supply.

Clearly ZESA is doing something right.

Naturally Zimbabweans would be curious to know what is it that is being done right by ZESA, notorious for decades of institutional decay and corruption. 

More importantly, I am sure more of us would want to know what changed.

The answer is as simple as it is complex. 

But in a sentence, what changed is one man. 

Yes, one man!

Indeed it is quite common that an institution, including a country, can be held back and plunged into chaos and deterioration by one man at the top. 

If there is the wrong person in charge, even of a country, the majority suffer. 

Yet a simple change in leadership can, as if miraculously, transform an entire nation – leading to vast meaningful development and the upliftment of the population.

So, yes one individual in power can turn the lives of everyone into a harrowing nightmare – and the removal of that person can unlock advancement and prosperity never imagined before.

This is the profound lesson the power utility teaches us.

For over two decades, the name Sydney Gata was practically synonymous with the administrative identity of ZESA Holdings. 

Serving across multiple tenures, his ultimate consolidation of power under the title of Executive Chairman created a deeply entrenched system where corporate oversight and daily operational execution were rolled into a single office. 

In the realm of classic corporate governance, this is a textbook red flag. 

It creates a structural bottleneck of staggering proportions. 

When a single individual possesses absolute administrative authority, institutional agility is choked out, meritocracy is sidelined, and systemic accountability completely vanishes. 

Under this suffocating, centralized paradigm, our national power grid systematically decayed, burdened by a culture of mismanagement, political shielding, and a spectacular failure to prioritize the core engineering needs of the country.

The profound transformation we are witnessing today was catalyzed by Gata’s sudden passing in July 2025. 

While death is a somber reality, its political and administrative consequence at ZESA was the immediate, overdue dismantling of the toxic Executive Chairman model. 

The Ministry of Energy and Power Development, alongside the Mutapa Investment Fund, seized this critical juncture to execute a fundamental separation of powers. 

They did what should have been done decades ago: they split the role. 

Albert Joel Nduna was brought in as a non-executive Acting Board Chairman to handle institutional policy, while Engineer Cletus Nyachowe, a veteran power specialist with decades of real-world asset management experience, took the reins as interim Group CEO.

This single structural shift completely broke the logjam. 

Suddenly, the boardroom was no longer an echo chamber designed to protect the legacy of an all-powerful executive; it became a space for genuine accountability. 

More importantly, operational decision-making was handed back to actual engineers and technical specialists. 

For the first time in memory, decisions regarding grid stability, infrastructure rehabilitation, and resource allocation were stripped of suffocating bureaucratic patronage and driven entirely by technical merit.

The dividends of this administrative liberation became visible almost immediately. 

With a leadership team focused strictly on engineering outputs rather than political self-preservation, long-neglected infrastructure projects suddenly found traction. 

The expansion and stabilization of Hwange Units 7 and 8 were aggressively managed, providing the consistent baseload power that had eluded the nation for a generation. 

Concurrently, the unbundled management structure allowed for flexible, pragmatic partnerships with independent power producers and streamlined strategic imports.

This effectively eliminated the chaotic load-shedding schedules that had paralyzed Zimbabwean industries and households for more than a decade.

Monday night’s rapid response to the Warren–Alaska transmission line fault was the ultimate stress test of this reformed structure. 

In years past, a total grid collapse of that magnitude would have triggered days of finger-pointing, bureaucratic paralysis, and localized blackouts stretching into weeks. 

Instead, a liberated technical team, operating under a clear and uncompromised mandate, acted with unprecedented coordination to restore bulk supply points within hours. 

It was a vivid, undeniable demonstration of what happens when engineering proficiency is divorced from toxic administrative centralization.

The lesson here stretches far beyond the pylons and transmission lines of ZESA; it is a profound cautionary tale and an illuminating blueprint for our entire nation. 

Zimbabwe has long suffered under the weight of institutions subverted to serve the whims, egos, and longevity of powerful individuals at the top. 

We have seen how the fortunes of an entire population can be held hostage by the stubborn entrenchment of leadership that prioritizes personal control over collective progress. 

The remarkable turnaround of our power utility proves conclusively that structural reform is impossible without first removing the human obstacle blocking the doorway to progress. 

When the wrong individual is finally removed from the apex of power, the stifled potential of an entire organization—or an entire country—is instantly unleashed. 

This proves that true national upliftment begins with the courage to change the man at the top.

• Tendai Ruben Mbofana is a social justice advocate and writer. To directly receive his articles please join his WhatsApp Channel on: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaqprWCIyPtRnKpkHe08