The Energy Regulation Board (ERB) has confirmed that a nationwide power outage on Sunday at 20:15 hours affected Zambia and its interconnected neighbor, Zimbabwe.
And ERB Director General, Elijah Sichone, has disclosed that two mines, Chambishi and Mopani’s Mindolo shaft, experienced incidents of miners being trapped underground during the blackout.
Fortunately, all the miners were rescued safely without injury.
Meanwhile, Information and Media Permanent Secretary, Thabo Kawana, has assured the public that no critical incidents were recorded during the outage.
Hospitals, including the University Teaching Hospital, maintained uninterrupted power through backup systems, with power restoration at UTH completed within 30 minutes.
Acting ZESCO Managing Director, Justin Loongo, revealed that the cause of the outage is under investigation, and technical teams are working to prevent future occurrences of similar disruptions.
By Peter Zunda Jr