President Emmerson Mnangagwa walked out of the New Parliament Building in darkness, a significant highlight of the country's ongoing electricity crisis.
The 82-year-old Zanu PF leader had attended the 2025 National Budget presentation by Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube in Mt Hampden, situated on the outskirts of Harare.
As Ncube was concluding his presentation the entire Parliament precinct was plunged into darkness.
Ironically, Ncube allocated ZiG259 million to the Ministry of Energy for the coming year, despite the country's ongoing electricity crisis.
Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) legislator, Leslie Mhangwa, who represents Chinhoyi constituency, warned that Zimbabweans should brace for longer periods without electricity.
"It is evident that the government has abdicated the responsibility of energy to private players.
"The only thing that is there is deferment of VAT but the elephant in the room, which is still to be addressed is energy should be sold in US dollar particularly for industries. This is cheaper for industry.
"This is the sustainable route to take but everywhere else in terms of energy we are not ready to plan long term. There is nothing to write home about. Aluta continua! Nothing is going to change. We are going to continue in darkness," said Mhangwa.
Zimbabwe is currently facing extensive load shedding, with some areas experiencing power outages lasting more than 15 hours a day.
The government, along with the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA), has attributed the power shortages to the breakdowns in generating plants at Hwange and low water levels at Kariba dam - two of the country's major sources of electricity.
CCC MP for Dzivarasekwa, Edwin Mushoriwa blasted Ncube for the budget allocation, describing it as insufficient in light of energy crisis.
"The minister failed to come up with incentives. One of the things that we expected when he was talking of suspending duty on several things we were hoping that he was going to suspend duty on any other energy mechanism, solar and other things so that alleviate the energy shortages," said Mushoriwa.
