By A Correspondent

The Parliament of Zimbabwe has extended an apology to President Emmerson Mnangagwa and the citizens of the country following a power outage that took place Thursday, just after the presentation of the 2025 National Budget.

In an official statement, Parliament expressed regret over the incident, explaining that it was caused by severe thunderstorms and strong winds which affected overhead power lines. This, in turn, led to a fault at a 132kV feeder that supplies power to a substation serving the Mt Hampden area.

After consulting with onsite personnel and the Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company (ZETDC), it was determined that the power failure resulted in the loss of electricity to the New Parliament Building and its surrounding areas at 3:25 PM.

The statement also noted that the building’s backup generator was impacted by the power surge, causing it to lose its memory settings. As a result, the generator failed to automatically switch on, but power was restored within five minutes after the generator was manually reset.

Parliament reassured the public that steps are being taken in collaboration with relevant authorities to prevent similar incidents in the future.