Zimbabwe in 24 hour nationwide electricity blackout

About 90% of Zimbabwe on Wednesday night to Thursday suffered a 24 hour power blackout. Various parts of the country started losing power from Wednesday around 8 pm and by 5 am Thursday morning almost the whole country was in a blackout. Power was only "fully" restored in almost all the areas of the country by 8 pm Thursday.

According to a statement issued by the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) all of the country's major power stations unbelievably encountered faults at about the same time. The three power stations failed to generate power for the greater part of Wednesday evening, leaving only Bulawayo and Munyati thermal power stations in operation. These are Kariba Hydro-Power Station which has an installed capacity of 750 mega watts, Hwange Power Station with an installed capacity of 920 mega watts and Harare Power Station which has an installed capacity of 90 mega watts.

Zimbabweans from all over the country inundated local media houses with calls enquiring what was happening to the power supply. Staff of the electricity supply authority sounded not so kin to co-operate with callers who were calling the utility to confirm if it was true that the black out was indeed nation wide and what had caused it.

Bulawayo 24 suffered the same fate when a reporter called the Bulawayo Power Station for an enquiry. When called, a lady attending the utility company's switch board on Bulawayo number 09 - 889891 would not afford the reporter an opportunity to speak to the responsible persons the moment she heard the reporter needed to enquire about the power cut. "You press people are a problem who has told you that its a nationwide power failure? Where I am working there is electricity I don't know what you are talking about. If its nationwide black out then that's a government problem not our problem here phone the minister maybe he will give you a better answer," said the lady before dropping the call.

However another official at the Bulawayo power station opened up preferring to remain anonymous and attributed the nationwide power failure to an industrial action sabotage at the power stations. Speaking to the ZBC, ZESA Holdings Group Public Relations Manager Fullard Gwasira said the loss of electricity generation from power stations was due to a power system disturbance that originated from outside the country's borders a statement which has remained doubtful with many people.

Reports from the power company said the Kariba Hydro-Power Station was restored early Thursday morning, while the other two stations were restored mid morning. However reports from the public showed that some areas like Mberegwa, Gwanda to Beitbridge only received power supply as late at 8 pm on Thursday night.

This is not the first time that Zimbabwe has suffered unexplained nationwide power failures, the last of which was in February this year.