**Power Outage Disrupts Zimbabwe Parliament During Critical Budget Presentation**

The unexpected power cut highlights the severe energy crisis facing Zimbabwe amid ongoing drought conditions.

Zimbabwe's parliament was thrown into darkness during a significant budget speech delivered by Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube, highlighting the nation's critical energy issues. The blackout occurred just as Ncube was concluding his address, with key officials like President Emmerson Mnangagwa and Vice-President Constantino Chiwenga present at the time.

The power failure came on the heels of Zimbabwe's prolonged crisis, marked by daily blackouts lasting up to twelve hours. These outages have been exacerbated by a severe drought that has severely impacted energy production at the Kariba Dam, the country's primary power source. As the lights flickered out, opposition MPs voiced their discontent, asserting that the blackout served as a telling representation of Zimbabwe's current state of affairs.

According to George Manyaya, a spokesperson for Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (Zesa), the blackout was not anticipated. He noted that parliament typically enjoys a dedicated electricity supply exempt from outages, but this incident was attributed to a lightning strike. Before the incident, Minister Ncube warned that the agricultural sector was set to decline by 15% this year due to the ongoing drought. However, he expressed optimism that the economy could rebound with a projected growth of 6% next year, contingent upon forecasts of increased rainfall, which would also help alleviate the electricity supply crisis.