Mozambique’s giant dam is back in action

Press, 17 November 1981, Page 20

Mozambique’s giant dam is back in action

By

MARY CHALMERS in Lisbon

The Cabora Bassa . hydroelectric dam in northern Mozambique has resumed power exports to South Africa after the repair of transmission lines sabotaged in April. One of the • two parallel power lines linking Cabora Bassa with Johannesburg was put back into service in October and the other will be working soon. The event passed off without official comment but the Portuguese Government, which operates Cabora Bassa, breathed a huge sigh of relief. Guerrillas of the Mozambique National Resistance have kept the lines to South Africa put of action for all but three months since June, 1980, causing a revenue loss of $6O million. South Africa buys 97 per cent of Cabora Bassa’s 2000 megawatt output and Portugal relies on this revenue to repay $740 million in foreign loans raised to build the dam when Mozambique was still a colony. It is the largest single item of Portugal's public foreign debt. The Portuguese Government guaranteed every cent of this capital, and when Mozambique became independent, in 1975, responsibility for repayment remained with Lisbon. A secret protocol between Portugal and the independent Frelimo Government provided that Portugal should run the dam until it had fully recovered its investment capital. The largest hydro-electric dam in Africa would then become the property of. the Mozambique State.. Cabora. Bassa’s continuing importance for Portugal is shown by the fact that. President Antonio Ramalho Eanes will visit the site during a State visit to Mozambique later this month. Construction. snags delayed the dam’s completion by several years and it did not begin producing electricity until 1977. reaching full capacity two years later Cabora Bassa’s financial vulnerability is its dependence on power sales to

South Africa. Mozambique and neighbouring black States could not at present absorb the dam’s huge power output, even if power lines to new markets were built. This makes the 2000-kilo-metre line of pylons to South Africa the dam’s only viable outlet.'Since it passed through a remote area of central Mozambique which is the stronghold of anti-Frelimo. guerrillas, the line is easy prey to sabotage. Officials of the Cabora Bassa Hydro-electric Company in Lisbon said the delay in repairing the latest damage was caused by poor security in the area which prevented engineers from going in. The repair work itself was relatively fast and simple. Maputo’s electricity supply normally comes from the dam via a transformer station out-

side Johannesburg. When the lines are down, the Mozambican capital has to depend on direct power imports from South Africa. For South Africa. Cabora Bassa can provide cheap electricity to cover 10 per cent of the country’s needs. It saves the burning of imported oil in old and inefficient power stations which otherwise have to be brought into use. Electricity purchases from Mozambique also give Pretoria a useful economic lever- with which to influence its radical black neighbour. The Mozambicans are therefore puzzled why the guerrillas, who are supported by South Africa, should persistently choose the Cabora Bassa power lines as a target. — Copyright. London Observer Service.