HARARE – President Emmerson Mnangagwa was forced to conclude his State of the Nation Address (SONA) in near darkness on Tuesday, as a power outage again struck the New Parliament Building in Mt Hampden just like last year during another address.
The 83-year-old President was addressing legislators and top government officials. An aide used a torch to illuminate Mnangagwa’s notes, allowing him to complete his speech. Moments after he concluded, power was restored.
This is not the first time this incident has happened. In November last year, a power cut plunged Zimbabwe’s parliament into darkness as Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube was finishing his budget speech.
The lights flickered and went out, leaving top officials, including Mnangagwa and Vice-President Constantino Chiwenga, sitting in darkness before walking out due to security concerns.
The outage is a reflection of Zimbabwe’s ongoing energy crisis, marked by daily power cuts lasting up to 12 hours.
The shortages have been caused by a prolonged drought that has severely reduced power generation at the Kariba Dam, the country’s main source of electricity.
At the time, Parliament officials issued a public apology, attributing the disruption to “tripping of electricity distribution pylons due to bad weather.”
Parliament Clerk Kennedy Chokuda explained that thunderstorms and high winds had affected overhead lines, leading to a fault at a 132kv feeder supplying power to the Mt Hampden substation.
The standby generator also failed to start automatically after its memory settings were disrupted by the power surge, requiring manual intervention. Power was restored within five minutes.
No official comment had been issued at the time of writing regarding the outage, but repeated disruptions have drawn attention to Zimbabwe’s persistent energy challenges.
The country is currently facing daily power cuts, largely due to reduced generation capacity at the Kariba Dam.
Last week, the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) announced that Hwange Power Station’s Unit 8 had been taken off the grid for 10 days due to a technical fault, worsening Zimbabwe’s already severe power shortages.
The shutdown comes as Unit 3 remains offline for maintenance, leaving the country generating about 1,296MW against a peak demand of 2,000MW.
ZESA said it had increased generation at Kariba South to offset the shortfall but warned of intensified load-shedding, with some urban areas already enduring up to 20 hours without electricity daily.
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