DAR ES SALAAM, Oct. 26 (Xinhua)-- Tanzanian Minister for Energy Medard Kalemani on Thursday sacked a senior official with the east African nation's power utility firm after he had failed to explain the cause of power blackout that hit most parts of the country for two consecutive days.
Announcing the sacking of the Kidatu hydropower station manager, Kalemani also ordered the state-owned Tanzania Electric Supply Company (TANESCO) deputy managing director to explain the cause of the power blackouts.
"I am also directing the TANESCO protection manager to voluntarily resign should the blackouts continue until today (Thursday)," he told a news conference in the commercial capital Dar es Salaam.
Kalemani said he had travelled all the way from the country's political capital Dodoma to Dar es Salaam to get on the spot explanation on what had caused the country to be in darkness for more than 12 hours.
"We need an explanation on what happened, there is no way you can put the country in darkness for more than 10 hours. The power protection manager should explain or if there is someone who is sabotaging our power supply systems let us know," said the minister.
He said the government will not tolerate TANESCO employees who continued to conduct their business as usual, adding that anyone who was not ready to work for the company should quit.
On Wednesday and Thursday, the country experienced blackouts especially in regions that are connected to the national grid, which the power utility attributed to technical faults.
A statement from TANESCO said technicians were working tirelessly to restore power supply.
Tanzania has 1,358 megawatts (MW) of installed grid generation capacity to serve its population of over 50 million, and an additional 76 MW in isolated mini-grids.
Electricity production meets less than 15 percent of the demand per annum. Less than 30 percent of the population is connected to the grid.
