ZESCO Spokesperson Henry Kapata says the Baboon that switched off power in Livingstone on Sunday morning is currently in Intensive Care Unit (ICU).
A baboon yesterday accidentally tampered with high voltage ZESCO machines, plunging 50,000 customers in Livingstone and Western Province into darkness.
In an exclusive interview with Byta FM, Kapata confirmed the incident adding that had the baboon been human, it would have been taken to court and possibly jailed for 25 years.
“The baboon tampered with the A station and the B3 and B5 machines in our power station cutting electricity to Western Province and ofcourse Livingstone town so we have about 28,000 customers in Livingstone and 22,000 customers in Western Province. So the baboon cut our power station around 06:50 hours,” said Kapata.
“The lines the baboon was tampering with are extremely high voltage. You can see that it was electrocuted in so many ways but it has survived. It is an animal, we cannot prosecute it otherwise if it was a human we would have taken it to court.”
Kapata said such an incident has never happened before and the baboon that has been handed over to the Zambia Wildlife Authority (ZAWA) is currently free but in the ICU.
