Zimbabweans roast ZBC after power outage causes loss of transmission

The internet reacted with glee on Monday after the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation suffered a blackout on its radio and TV services.

The ZBC said it "suffered a power outage" which "affected radio and TV transmission" lasting about four hours.

The monopoly broadcaster apologised "for the inconvenience", adding in a statement posted on Twitter: "Engineers are working to restore services."

If the ZBC – often criticised for being partisan and slow to modernise – was praying for public sympathy, it got the exact opposite.

Exiled former information minister Jonathan Moyo reacted on Twitter: "Many will take it as an early life-changing Christmas present if the transmission does not resume, permanently!"

"Take your time," journalist Edmund Kudzayi tweeted.

"It's OK. Go easy on yourselves. We also are not paying the license fees because we don't see the necessity of your service," another Twitter user weighed in.

Others thanked power utility ZESA - which hardly ever gets a positive review - for the interruption of power supply.

"Thank you ZESA for doing the Lord's work," one Kuziva wrote.

Few Zimbabweans watch the ZBC, and if the much-maligned public broadcaster had no measure of the depth of public revulsion with its programming, the blackout delivered free – and sometimes hard to digest – feedback.

"Kusvika 2030 (until 2030), in our president's voice," tweeted socialite Acie Lumumba.