BULAWAYO – Organisers of the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair apologised on Wednesday after a 15-minute power cut delayed Vice President Constantino Chiwenga’s speech during a business conference.
Industry and trade minister Mangaliso Ndlovu had just invited Chiwenga to address the Zimbabwe International Business Conference when the room suddenly went dark. Chiwenga remained in his seat.
Power returned briefly after five minutes but it went off again. Electricity was finally restored from a backup generator about 10 minutes later.
Ndlovu immediately offered an apology.
“I want to sincerely apologise to our guest of honour (Chiwenga) for the technical fault we are experiencing and want to extend the same apology to you all,” the minister told the attendees, among them foreign delegates.
ZITF chairman Busisa Moyo later issued a statement explaining what happened. He blamed the blackout on an “unexpected fault on the power line into the fairgrounds.”
“We seem to be experiencing an overload on the normal power line. The conference backup generator from ZETDC that had been running since morning also developed a technical fault. The ZETDC technicians worked to resolve the technical fault and restored power,” Moyo said.
“The ZITF board and management wish to apologise for the inconvenience caused. Efforts to upgrade our facility into a smart city includes solarising all our exhibition halls.”
Moyo added that “everybody said ‘we forgive you’.”
Chiwenga made no reference to the power outage during his speech.
Zimbabweans are enduring power cuts lasting up to eight hours daily due to depressed generation blamed on low water levels at Kariba and machine breakdowns at Hwange.
The 65th edition of Zimbabwe’s premier trade showcase is running from April 21 to 26.
The official opening by Mozambican president Daniel Chapo is set to be held on Saturday, the final day, organisers announced.
