A power outage cast a shadow over Zimbabwe’s parliament as Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube finished his budget speech.
The lights went out and died leaving officials like President Emmerson Mnangagwa, Vice President Constantino Chiwenga and members of the House of Parliament sitting in the dark.
This outage is an indication of the ongoing problem in Zimbabwe, as every day the electricity is cut off for 12 hours due to a long drought that disables the generation of electricity at the Kariba Dam, which is the country’s largest power plant.
When the lights were switched off, opposition MPs shouted that the switch off symbolized the state of the country.
George Manyaya, spokesperson for the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (Zesa) told a local newspaper ZimLive that the power outage was unplanned.
He said the parliament has its own dedicated electricity that is free from power cuts.
He said the power outage was caused by lightning.
Before the lights were turned off, Ncube said the agricultural sector will work at 15% this year because of the drought.
He indicated that the economy will grow by 6% next year due to the forecast of above average rainfall – which will also improve the supply of electricity.
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