Parliament plunges into darkness during Mthuli Ncube's national budget speech

Electricity went off plunging parliament into darkness as finance minister Mthuli Ncube was concluding his 2025 national budget speech on Thursday.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa was escorted out of the building in Mt Hampden as parliament's own generators took a while to kick-in and restore lighting.

Power utility ZESA dispelled suggestions that the incident was due to load shedding, instead blaming lightning for the blackout.

ZESA spokesman George Manyaya said parliament has a dedicated line which is exempt from load shedding.

"There was a storm in the parliament area and unfortunately lightning caused a temporary loss of power during the budget presentation. It's an act of nature and definitely not load shedding as is being suggested on social media," Manyaya told ZimLive.

During the blackout, opposition Citizens Coalition for Change MPs chanted "magetsi azviramba" and "state of affairs."

One MP shouted: "The House is under attack."

Zimbabweans are enduring power cuts lasting up to 18 hours daily as ZESA struggles to meet demand.

Low water levels at Kariba have forced the power utility to reduce generation. Ageing thermal power stations at Hwange have become unreliable.

Data from ZESA subsidiary, the Zimbabwe Power Company, showed that the country was generating 1,083 MW of power on Wednesday against a national demand of about 2,000 MW.

Ncube told parliament that the power deficit was "weighing down on production and the competitiveness of the economy."

"During 2025, power generation is expected to increase by 10.6 percent reaching 10,000 GW against projected demand of 19,000 GW. This power growth will be anchored by expected reliable performance of Hwange units 7 and 8 as well as expected additional output from renewable energy by independent power producers," Ncube said.