HARARE — Tensions ran high in Parliament on Tuesday after Speaker Jacob Mudenda appeared to issue a chilling warning following a sudden power outage during President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s State of the Nation Address (SONA).
“The person who switched off electricity while the President was speaking will regret the day he was born,” Mudenda thundered before MPs, suggesting that the blackout may have been deliberate.
The President’s address was briefly interrupted by the outage and had to continue under generator power, despite Parliament reportedly arranging for ZESA to be on standby as the primary power source.
ZimLive understands that the generator had been switched on at around midday, with ZESA engineers on site. However, at approximately 2:30 PM—while Mnangagwa was still reading his speech—the generator developed a technical fault.
According to parliamentary sources, ZESA engineers subsequently restored the main power supply, but technicians from the Ministry of Local Government allegedly delayed lifting the circuit breaker to transfer the load back to ZESA.
“The switch-over took longer than expected, and that’s when the blackout occurred,” one insider said.
Mudenda, whose office oversees parliamentary operations, has reportedly been fuming over the embarrassment caused during the high-profile event. He has vowed that those responsible for the disruption “will face the consequences.”
The incident has fuelled speculation of internal mismanagement—or possible sabotage—within Parliament’s technical services department.
