Zimbabwe’s state power utility Zesa reported a nationwide power outage on Monday evening, saying a technical fault on its network caused the blackout at 6.24pm.

Zesa said its technical teams were investigating the cause of the outage.

Zimbabweans have long experience with blackouts, exacerbated by ageing equipment at power plants and foreign currency shortages that meant authorities cannot pay for imports.

The utility said its engineers were working to restore grid stability and would provide further updates as restoration progressed.

In an update on Tuesday morning, Zesa provided more detail about the national blackout. “At 6.24pm, a major electrical fault occurred on the Warren-Alaska 330kV line leading to loss of interconnections with neighbouring regional utilities and subsequently local generation was lost due to voltage instability and under frequency.

Work ongoing

“Restoration efforts commenced at 7.01pm, successfully getting supplies from Eskom, Kariba Power Station, Hydro Cabora Bassa and Hwange units 1, 2, and 3. We are pleased to advise that by 10pm, power had been successfully restored to most of our bulk supply points across the country,” it said.

Read: Zambia, Zimbabwe court investors for R91-billion hydroelectric dam

“Our technical teams are working tirelessly to restore and synchronise the remaining units at Hwange Power Station and to conduct works at the Warren substation, which supplies parts of Harare.” — Sfundo Parakozov, (c) 2026 Reuters, with additional reporting (c) 2026 NewsCentral Media