{"id":19636,"date":"2024-11-29T13:27:59","date_gmt":"2024-11-29T13:27:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/?p=19636"},"modified":"2024-11-29T13:27:59","modified_gmt":"2024-11-29T13:27:59","slug":"zimbabwe-parliament-hit-by-power-cut-after-budget-speech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/?p=19636","title":{"rendered":"Zimbabwe parliament hit by power cut after budget speech"},"content":{"rendered":"<div data-component=\"text-block\">\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">A power cut plunged Zimbabwe&#8217;s parliament into darkness as Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube was finishing his budget speech.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">The lights flickered and died, leaving top officials like President Emmerson Mnangagwa, Vice-President Constantino Chiwenga and members of parliament sitting in the dark. <!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">The outage is a symptom of Zimbabwe\u2019s ongoing crisis, with daily 12-hour blackouts driven by a prolonged drought that is crippling energy generation at the Kariba Dam, the country\u2019s main power source.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">As the lights went out, opposition MPs shouted that the outage was an apt metaphor for the country\u2019s state of affairs.<!-- --><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div data-component=\"text-block\">\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">George Manyaya, a spokesperson from Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (Zesa) told local news site <!-- --><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.zimlive.com\/parliament-blackout-caused-by-lightning-during-afternoon-storm-zesa\/\" class=\"sc-c9299ecf-0 bZUiKB\">ZimLive <!-- --><\/a>that the blackout had not been planned. <!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">He said parliament had its own dedicated electricity supply which is exempt from power cuts. <!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">He said the blackout had happened because of a lightning strike. <!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">Before the lights went out, Ncube said the agricultural sector would contract by 15% this year because of the drought. <!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">He, however, projected that the economy would grow by 6% next year due to the forecast of above-average rainfall &#8211; which would also serve to improve the supply of electricity.<!-- --><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<hr style=\"border-top: 2px solid #ccc; margin-top: 20px;\">\n<p><em>Source: <\/em> <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/articles\/cd6v126z497o\">www.bbc.com\u2026<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A power cut plunged Zimbabwe&#8217;s parliament into darkness as Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube was finishing his budget speech. The lights flickered and died, leaving top officials like President Emmerson Mnangagwa, Vice-President Constantino Chiwenga and members of parliament sitting in the dark. The outage is a symptom of Zimbabwe\u2019s ongoing crisis, with daily 12-hour blackouts driven [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19636","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19636","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19636"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19636\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}