Tinotenda Hove – President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s State of the Nation Address (SONA) was briefly interrupted by a power outage on Tuesday — despite the event being powered by a standby generator.

According to reports, Parliament had requested the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) to serve as the backup power source. The generator was switched on at 12 PM, with ZESA engineers on standby. However, it developed a technical fault around 2:30 PM while President Mnangagwa was still delivering his speech.

A source close to the incident revealed: “It appears ZESA engineers restored power, but Local Government engineers took too long to lift the breaker and switch back to ZESA.”

Speaker of Parliament Jacob Mudenda, whose office has been linked to the mishap, expressed outrage over the embarrassing incident, vowing that those responsible would face consequences.

“The culprits will regret the day of their existence,” said Mudenda.

The incident marked the second time Mnangagwa has been humiliated by a power blackout while addressing Parliament, raising questions about the management of critical national events.

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