Parliament was plunged into darkness yesterday just as President Emmerson Mnangagwa stood to deliver his State of the Nation Address. What was meant to be a declaration of strength and national progress became a moment of pure national shame. The lights went out and so too did any illusion of a functioning government. The president, the leader of a party that has ruled Zimbabwe for 45 years, was forced to complete his speech under torchlight. The flickering beam danced across the walls like a cruel reminder of how far Zimbabwe has fallen.

The Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company’s Managing Director Abel Gurupira was suspended almost immediately after the debacle. The speed of his dismissal had less to do with justice and more to do with saving face. An internal memo claimed there would be an investigation, but it is clear this was not about finding the truth. It was about damage control. Energy Minister July Moyo and ZESA’s group CEO Cletus Nyachowe did not act because they care about accountability. They acted because pressure came fast and furious from Mnangagwa and an enraged Speaker of Parliament Jacob Mudenda who reportedly demanded a swift and severe response.

And yet despite all the finger-pointing, no one can clearly say what caused the blackout. Was it sabotage as Mudenda and others now claim or was it a technical fault as the official excuse goes? That question remains unanswered. But the real issue is not what caused it. It is what the incident revealed. This is not the first time something like this has happened. It keeps happening. So if it was sabotage, it means there is deep internal rot within the system. If it was technical failure, it confirms that the infrastructure has collapsed. Either way, ZANU PF is the one to blame.

Zimbabweans saw through the spectacle. This was not just a momentary power cut. This was a metaphor. This was a symbol of the nation itself. The lights went out in parliament because they have long been out across the entire country. We live in darkness every day. Hospitals lose power. Schools cannot function. Children do homework by candlelight if they can even afford candles. But only when the powerful are embarrassed does the regime pretend to care.

Yesterday was a tragic masterpiece of irony. A government that has thrown the nation into darkness found itself speaking in the dark. What better way to expose the truth? For decades, ZANU PF has suppressed the people, looted the economy, and brutalised dissent. What happened in parliament was not an accident. It was an unintentional act of poetic justice. A national address delivered in the dark by a president out of touch with a country he helped destroy.

Now we watch the panic. The blame game. The theatre of urgency. But nothing will change. Suspending Gurupira solves nothing. The rot is bigger than one man. It is baked into every corner of the system. Forty five years of corruption and failure will not be fixed with a scapegoat. What Zimbabwe needs is not new management at ZESA. What Zimbabwe needs is light. Real light. Accountability. Vision. Leadership.

But under ZANU PF, there is only darkness. And now the world has seen it too. Not in the words of activists. Not in protest songs. But in the image of a president holding a torch to read a speech he no longer has the moral authority to give. The blackout was real but it was also symbolic. Zimbabwe is in the dark and ZANU PF put us there.