Africa-Press – Tanzania. PRIME Minister Kassim Majaliwa has called on Tanzania Electric Supply Company (TANESCO) staff to abide by professionalism to ensure safety to the citizens and avoid causing loss to the government.
The Premier made the remarks yesterday when he toured Msamvu Power Transmission Station in Morogoro which was gutted by fire early this month. The station supplies power to various areas in Morogoro region and other parts of the country.
Mr Majaliwa commended Minister for Energy Dr Medard Kalemani for steps taken to suspend Tanesco officials for failing to identify electrical fault at the power station.
The incident resulted in power cut in Morogoro and some neighbouring regions. He also directed Dr Kalemani to take stringent legal measures against all those who will be found to have been involved in causing the problem after the committee he has formed to probe the incident completes its work.
“Reports showed that there were technical faults at the power station but it was forced to operate and the person who did that is an expert,” the PM said.
Earlier, briefing the Premier about maintenance of the power station Dr Kalemani said that his ministry in collaboration with Tanesco and the National Service had already ordered an emergency transformer with capacity of 30KV from Dodoma which will help to restore power in Morogoro region effective Monday next week.
On August 3 this year, Dr Kalemani suspended three officials of Tanesco to pave way for investigation of the fire outbreak at Msamvu Power Station, resulting into a 2bn/- loss.
He also directed Deputy Permanent Secretary Kheri Mahimbali to form a probe committee to investigate the cause of the fire, including ordering the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) contractor to investigate one of its engineers who is behind the mishap.
The directives were issues as the minister made an inspection tour of the Msamvu substation that was gutted by fire following the incident, leaving large areas without power.
The TANESCO engineers have been suspended for failing to identify the fault in the power plant at the substation.
