Vandalism surge cripples Zimbabwe's national electricity grid, stalling recovery efforts

ZESA warned that escalating vandalism of power infrastructure is systematically frustrating efforts to stabilize Zimbabwe's fragile national electricity grid. The utility reported that the targeted destruction of transformers and cables has become a critical bottleneck, reversing gains made in generation capacity. The crime wave exposes a deep governance failure where the state cannot secure its core infrastructure, leaving the grid perpetually vulnerable to organized scrap metal syndicates.