Zimbabwe parliament hit by power cut during budget speech

A power cut interrupted Zimbabwe's parliament during Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube's budget speech, plunging officials, including President Mnangagwa and Vice-President Chiwenga, into darkness.

The outage is a reflection of Zimbabwe’s ongoing energy crisis, caused by daily 12-hour blackouts due to a drought affecting power generation at the Kariba Dam.

Opposition MPs seized the moment, calling the blackout a metaphor for the country’s challenges.

The Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) attributed the outage to a lightning strike, despite parliament having its own power supply.

Prior to the blackout, Ncube forecasted a 15% contraction in agriculture this year due to drought but predicted 6% economic growth next year with expected rainfall improvements.