HARARE
–
Parliament
has
issued
an
apology
to
President
Emmerson
Mnangagwa
and
the
nation
following
an
embarrassing
power
outage
at
the
New
Parliament
Building
during
the
closing
remarks
of
Finance
Minister
Mthuli
Ncube’s
2025
national
budget
presentation
on
Thursday.
The
incident
saw
Mnangagwa
being
escorted
out
of
the
Chinese
built
facility
in
the
darkness
after
parliament’s
generators
took
moments
to
come
to
life.
ZESA
spokesman
George
Manyaya
immediately
attributed
the
incident
to
a
fault
which,
he
said,
had
been
caused
by
lightning.
Manyaya
said
“it’s
an
act
of
nature
and
definitely
not
load
shedding
as
is
being
suggested
on
social
media”.
In
a
statement,
parliament
also
apologised
to
Mnangagwa
saying
information
at
hand
indicated
that
thunderstorms
and
high
winds
affected
overhead
lines
resulting
in
tripping
at
a
132kv
feeder
that
supplies
power
to
a
substation
which
feeds
power
to
Mt
Hampden.
The
fault,
according
to
parliament,
also
affected
areas
neighbouring
the
Mt
Hampden
building
at
around
3.25PM.
Parliament
said
the
standby
generator
at
the
building
was
equally
affected
by
the
power
surge
resulting
in
the
generator
losing
its
memory
settings.
The
incident
would
not
have
happened
at
a
worse
time
than
a
period
in
which
the
entire
nation
and
the
world’s
attention
focussed
on
how
Zimbabwe
sought
to
address
its
myriad
economic
challenges
through
its
budget.
Zimbabwe
has
endured
recurrent
power
woes
which
have
seen
both
businesses
and
households
spend
long
periods
without
the
critical
resource
everyday.
While
the
recurrent
power
shortages
have
often
been
linked
to
depleting
water
levels
at
Lake
Kariba,
the
country’s
main
source
of
power
in
decades
–
by
government,
the
incident
on
Thursday
spotlighted
on
the
Zimbabwean
authorities’
failures
to
find
lasting
solutions
to
the
crisis.