Power Blackout Disrupts Zimbabwe's President Mnangagwa’s Speech, Forces Him to Cancel Trip

Zimbabwe O’ Zimbabwe! Africa is home to the bad leaders but it appears Zimbabwe has the worst crop the world has ever seen.

After enduring the hardships and turbulence associated with the government of ex-president Mugabe, the country has had to endure a transition that saw power passed onto Mugabe’s friend and comrade.

The country is often in the news for the wrong reasons and this paints its hard-working citizens in the wrong colors. One cannot help but wonder the level of hardships average and below-average citizens pass through in the country, when the situation reports are considered.

Gladly, no matter how high a person goes in life; if you do not do what is right, karma will catch up with you!

Despite building ivory towers around themselves, there is a way nemesis often catches up with our corrupt African leaders to shame them and give them a reality check as to the shameful lives they lead and poor legacies they are living behind.

Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa was made to come face to face with reality after he was forced to temporarily abandon his speech before industrialists and corporate professionals at the Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce (ZNCC) conference in Victoria Falls due to a power blackout.

This comes just days after Zimbabwe has been in the news for proposed power issues resulting to massive load shedding and poor electricity distribution. The incident gave credit to the popular comic quote that ‘karma has a sense of humor’.

In a report by AllAfrica, it was gathered that President Mnangagwa, who was guest speaker, had just completed his speech and preparing to respond to questions from conference delegates when suddenly there was a blackout.

Halfway into the president’s speech, the entire hall was plunged into pitch darkness and when they tried to restore power, it kept cutting out. This happened for over a dozen times prompting protocol and security personnel had to open curtains and blinds to usher in natural light into the conference room.

Zimbabweans, who have had to endure up to 15 hours of electricity load-shedding due to low generation levels at Kariba, breakdowns at Hwange Power Station and Zesa's failure to pay its regional suppliers such as South Africa's Eskom, would no doubt smile out the news.

Mnangagwa sat quietly in his chair while the master of ceremonies and former ZNCC president Luxon Zembe tried to lighten up the mood by cracking jokes.

"Engineer (Patrick) Chivaura, where are you? Can you sort this out please," said Zembe.

Zembe continued talking for minutes until power was restored.

President Mnangagwa was forced to cancel his scheduled evening flight to Bulawayo because of the power outage .

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Header Image Credit: Foreign Policy