Johnson Progress

The outage, which occurred mid‑speech on Tuesday, cut the lights in the chamber and left President  Mnangagwa speaking by the glow of a handheld torch.

Energy Minister July Moyo acted swiftly with a ministry source confirming that Moyo personally instructed ZETDC Group CEO Cletus Nyachowe to remove Abel Gurupira from his positionas the company’s Managing Director.

The minister ordered the immediate dismissal, citing the “embarrassing” blackout as a symbol of systemic failure in the energy sector.

A ZETDC insider, speaking on condition of anonymity, said, “This blackout was entirely unacceptable. The leadership wanted immediate accountability, and Gurupira’s removal was a direct result of that failure”.

Sources within the Ministry of Energy told reporters that an internal investigation has been launched to pinpoint the cause of the failure.

The probe will examine why a circuit breaker tripped while Parliament was running on a generator, a setup that should have kept the power stable.

“The loss of power supplies to key systems occurred when the Parliament building was running on a generator… a circuit breaker supplying the load had tripped,” the Clerk of Parliament, Kennedy Chokuda, explained, adding that the restoration “took longer than expected, resulting in part of the SONA being delivered without power supply.”

Parliament’s statement expressed “sincere regret” for the disruption and offered apologies to the President and the nation, noting that the incident has become “a metaphor for the state of governance and service delivery” under the current administration.

Speaker Jacob Mudenda, visibly angry, warned that the person responsible “will regret the day he was born,” a comment widely reported and fueling speculation of sabotage or gross mismanagement within the technical services department.

The firing of Gurupira is the latest fallout from a series of power‑supply woes.

The same chamber suffered a blackout during the 2024 budget presentation, and the latest incident has intensified scrutiny of ZETDC’s leadership and the broader energy crisis in Zimbabwe.

No replacement for Gurupira has been announced as officials scramble to stabilize operations and restore public confidence.

The investigation’s findings, which will be shared once complete, are expected to address whether the outage was a technical glitch, a maintenance lapse, or something more deliberate.