ZESA "System Disturbance" Plunges Zimbabwe Into Darkness

Zimbabwe experienced a nationwide electricity blackout on Sunday night into Monday morning, prompting widespread frustration on social media.

The Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company (ZETDC) confirmed the outage in a statement issued on Monday, attributing it to a disturbance in the national grid that led to a system-wide blackout. Reads the statement:

We regret to advise our valued customers that the national grid experienced a system disturbance last night resulting in a system blackout.

Our Engineers reacted and began the restoration process. We are happy to advise that as of this morning most of the load centres have been picked countrywide.

The blackout further exacerbated the frustration of Zimbabweans already enduring frequent power shortages, with some major urban areas, like Chitungwiza, experiencing up to 20 hours of daily power cuts.

In other parts of the country, people are enduring outages lasting up to a week, often without any explanation from the power utility.

Despite having the installed capacity at its power stations, ZESA is struggling to generate enough electricity to meet demand.

Hwange Power Station is currently producing around 1,000 MW, while Kariba Power Station, typically the most reliable, is operating at just a tenth of its installed capacity due to falling water levels at Kariba Dam.

More: Pindula News