Years of underinvestment and neglect in the power sector led to periodic outages and rationing two years ago, and stretched existing generation to the limit. Zimbabwe will face a structural shortage of electric power in the long term and has begun to act to develop new generating capacity. Several large projects are under study, including expanding the Hwange coal-fired thermal power facility by two generators in the next few years and, with neighboring Zambia, jointly developing a large hydro generation facility at the Batoka Gorge on the Zambezi River later this decade. The country is also examining a large coal-fired independent power project and will likely begin to exploit its coalbed methane resources, at least in part for power generation. The local telephone system is still well below international standards, although the project to digitalize the exchanges is proceeding and service has improved.
Local service is poor, and the waiting list for telephone service is years long.
Equipment needed ranges from satellite earth stations, to switching equipment, and rural communications systems and basic handsets. Paging and cellular service have not been introduced into the market, nor have many other business services that are now standard worldwide. However, with the late 1995 Supreme Court ruling ending the PTC's monopoly, we expect competition in the cellular service market. The opening of the Zimbabwe economy during the past few years has released a sizeable pent-up demand for consumer products and services. Several South African restaurant chains have moved into Zimbabwe in recent years.