Harare- Parliament has issued an apology to President Emmerson Mnangagwa and the nation following power failures that plunged Zimbabwe’s Parliament into darkness on Tuesday, disrupting the President’s State of the Nation Address (SONA).

The outage occurred as President Mnangagwa was delivering the SONA, a key event outlining the government’s agenda. For a significant portion of the address, the chamber was without power, forcing the proceedings to continue without live broadcast capabilities.

The statement, signed by Clerk of Parliament Kennedy Mugove Chokuda, revealed that the building was operating on a generator as its main power source at the time, with power from the ZESA on standby.

In a press statement issued hours after the incident, the Parliament of Zimbabwe offered “sincere apologies” to the President and the nation.

Said Chokuda:

“The loss of power supplies to key systems occurred when the Parliament building was running on a generator as the main source of supply with ZESA supply as a standby.

When supplies were lost, the Generator was still running, but not supplying power. Preliminary investigations indicate that a circuit breaker supplying the load had tripped.

The restoration took longer than expected, resulting in part of the SONA being delivered without power supply.”

Parliament confirmed that preliminary findings point to an internal failure. According to Parliament, the generator itself was still running, but a critical circuit breaker tripped, cutting the supply to the building’s systems. The statement acknowledged that the restoration of power “took longer than expected.”

The incident has prompted an official investigation. Parliament, the Ministry of Local Government and Public Works, and the power utility ZESA are now jointly probing the failure. Officials have promised to report their findings to the public and implement measures to prevent a future recurrence.

The blackout during one of the most watched events on the national calendar underscores the persistent challenges facing Zimbabwe’s public infrastructure and power supply, even within its most secure and symbolic institutions.