Tendai Nyambara
Zimbabwe experienced a nationwide blackout on Thursday afternoon after a major system disturbance disrupted power generation and regional electricity interconnections, ZESA Holdings (Pvt) Ltd confirmed in a statement.
The outage, which began at 14:11hrs, affected electricity generation at both the Kariba and Hwange Power Stations — Zimbabwe’s primary sources of power. ZESA reported that the disruption also impacted regional power flows, cutting off interconnections with National Transmission (South Africa), ZESCO (Zambia), and HCB (Mozambique).
“This simultaneous loss of generation and interconnection has severely affected supply,” the utility provider noted, adding that restoration efforts were underway and that some areas had already had power restored.
While the exact technical cause of the system disturbance remains unclear, power systems experts often cite regional instability, ageing infrastructure, and weather-related faults as common culprits. In 2022 and 2023, Zimbabwe also suffered multiple outages tied to low water levels at Kariba Dam and outdated thermal equipment at Hwange.
According to energy analysts, Zimbabwe’s power grid is highly interconnected with regional partners through the Southern African Power Pool (SAPP), meaning disruptions can have cascading effects beyond borders. As of Thursday evening, ZESA engineers continued to work “tirelessly” to restore electricity nationwide.
Zimbabweans, already burdened by scheduled load shedding due to supply-demand mismatches, were caught off guard by the sudden loss of power.
Further updates will be issued by ZESA as restoration progresses.
