Zimbabwe Hit by Nationwide Power Outage

Zimbabwe’s national grid collapsed on Monday, plunging the southern African country into a blackout, the state-owned power utility said.

The Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company (ZETDC) said in a statement that the grid failure occurred at about 6:24 p.m. local time. It did not disclose the cause of the blackout but said efforts to restore electricity had begun, with relevant departments mobilised to address the outage.

“All relevant departments have been notified, and processes for power restoration are in progress,” ZETDC said.

Its parent company, the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA), later attributed the disruption to a technical fault on the national power network.

ZESA said engineers were investigating the cause of the fault while working to restore stability to the electricity grid and resume power supply nationwide.

Zimbabwe has experienced persistent electricity shortages in recent years due to inadequate power generation and ageing infrastructure.

The country relies mainly on the coal-fired Hwange Power Station for electricity generation, while output from the Kariba Hydroelectric Power Station has been limited by low water levels linked to poor rainfall and recurring droughts.