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The power blackout that lasted for four minutes was

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The 12 Heads of State and country representatives who are attending the summit remained in the dark while seated at the high table in the main hall, save for a litle light from a few power saving florescent tubes.

The sudden blackout happened when winner of the SADC Secondary Schools essay competition Diana Kawenda from Zimbabwe was reading to the delegates the essay that made her scoop the competition.

The deafening silence that followed the power failure was however diluted by songs from the MMD choir as the fault was being rectified

Zesco has in the recent past received a barrage of complaints from people around the country on its unannounced power cuts.

54 COMMENTS

  1. I wonder how these Zesco Engineers configured the Generator they were boasting about. Facilities like Mulungushi conference center need Un-interruptable Power supply which could either be interactive or online. The Online UPS is prefable as it also provides realtime conditioning. You can easily build some required KVA by using some some Rectifiers, Battery and the Inverters( AC-DC, DC-AC. The Generator and Zesco can provide the prime power suplly. Two auto sync Generator would do the trick, incase one Gen fails to start.. Gen only will always give you a delay to restore power due the sequence of kicking the Engine and prime power to required threshold.
    Bane, So something..I am available for Hire.

  2. Dr.HK is this your area of specialisation. Its very embarrassing for zesco. They didnt play adquately the usual Zambian way of excuses.

  3. Easy. Mulungushi Conference is an areas which need 99.9995% power availabilty. The stakes rises when Heads of states are conducting a meeting therefore availability should be approaching hundreds % or should I say unavailability should 0 to accuracy of 7digits.0.0000001. Where this occures, rechargeable emergency lights should be adequate to avoid zero illuminace.

    The above parameter itself, would make a design engineer, design a power network which meets these key performace indicators.
    I am not an expert in Power, but looking at the way things happen in Zed, I may as well call myself an Expert…But HK is not into agrandisations, He just sticks it where it matters.

  4. We are truly a third world society. This happened again at the formation of OAU, it seems ZESCO has lost all its competencies over the years.

  5. Thats for treu Bauze..Message well delivere: Need to invest in our infrastrure and Human resources. It served as a point to the agenda well

  6. #3 HK I tell you now Iam in IT field we should be talking of High availability. I wonder what kind of System management Zesco applies. If it was my company the director would gone already. bauze why protesting we dont need that zambia is an open society. Remember we have so many igorant pipo who dont know how protest. Anyway I fair in my observation still remember a few years Francis where you are in Hoolywood power went off as Janet Jackson was singing. What is important is how quick can the shortage be fixed. IT HK we talk of Backup or something like RAID so That Servers have power 24/7.

  7. A random power failure can happen anywhere Easy. There’s no good reason why this keeps embarrassing us when Heads of govt are meeting at Mulungushi.

  8. Power blackout, nice to know the elite are not spared by this ZESCO-made disease, ravaging the ordinary folk in low-cost residential areas.

  9. Guys hold your fire:According to ZNBC-Chief government spokesman Mike Mulongo has apologised to the heads of state attending the SADC meeting for the power interuption and said that a lizard along the great east road past through one of the ZESCO naked cables causing the power to go off for 3 minutes…

  10. Last Updated: Thursday, 16 August 2007, 17:18 GMT 18:18 UK

    E-mail this to a friend Printable version

    Botswana pilots anger at HIV move
    By Letlhogile Lucas
    BBC News, Gaborone

    Pilots in Botswana have reacted angrily to new regulations that mean they could face the sack if they have HIV.

    The country’s Civil Aviation Department says pilots and air traffic controllers must be tested regularly for HIV, diabetes and high blood pressure.

    If found to be HIV-positive and to have developed another complaint, their licence will be withdrawn.

    The authorities say the move is meant to guarantee passenger safety, but rights groups say it is discriminatory.

    Botswana has one of the world’s highest rates of HIV infection, but also has one of Africa’s most advanced Aids treatment programmes and readily available anti-retroviral drugs.

    According to the government’s own HIV/Aids policy, an employee should not loose their job because they have HIV.

    ‘Uneasiness’

    The new regulations require that a young pilot, for example, is tested at least once a year – and more often the older he or she gets.

  11. #10 Cyber-USA I thought you are joking when you posted this but its true. Here is the entire story from ZANIS: Lusaka, August 16, ZANIS – Government has unreservedly apologised to the Heads of State and Government and delegates attending the 27th SADC summit at Mulungushi International Conference Centre, MICC for the power failure that occurred during the official opening of the summit. Chief Government Spokesperson, Mike Mulongoti says Government,Management of MICC and Zambia Electricity Supply, ZESCO regrets the unexpected power disruption which occured in the morning when a Zimbabwean student was reading her essay. “The unexpected power disruption which occurred at about 11.20 hrs this morning and lasts several minutes when a Zimbabwean student was reading her essay is deeply regretted by government, the management of MICC and ZESCO,” he said. This is contained in a statement released to ZANIS in Lusaka this evening. Mr. Mulongoti who is also Information and Broadcasting Minister

  12. said government has since asked ZESCO to explain why the two independent sources of supply did not respond immediately. Mr Mulongoti wondered why the standby generators took longer, which under normal circumstances should have taken over within seconds. Mr. Mulongoti has however said MICC management and ZESCO has taken all the necessary measures to ensure that there was no occurrence of power disruptions. He said ZESCO has provided two independent sources of power in additional to a diesel standby generator to provide power in the event of failure of the two sources. He added that ZESCO personnel have been deployed at the conference centre to ensure that there is quick restoration of supply in the event of power failure. Power failure this morning partially disrupted the official opening of the 27th SADC Heads of States and government summit. Power went off when this years SADC regional secondary school winner Diana Kawendu , a pupil from Zimbabwe was reading her extracts from the

  13. This is going to be explosively controversial. I think the definition of medical fitness should not be defined along a few predisposing conditions. What about mental health patients? At what stage does an HIV patient or a diabetic become too impaired to operate a machine? And what about other workers who handle public life like health workers? Botswana supposedly has nearly 40% prevalence why are they doing this to their masses?

  14. essay. Deliberations however continued after four minutes when power was restored to the venture. And ZESCO has attributed the power failure to a lizard which crept in the Great East Road Substation on the Great East road. Very embarrassing the whole world is reading this. How can we atttract investors and tourists like this. So the load shedding in our society is due to liards climbing cables.

  15. Zimbabweans urged to keep peace

    Mr Mugabe used to be able to rely on support from his counterparts
    Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa has called on the people of Zimbabwe to maintain peace at all costs.
    He was speaking at the opening of a summit of southern African leaders at which Zimbabwe’s economic and political crisis is expected to be discussed.

    Countries in the region had all gone through difficult times, but had not resorted to violence, he said.

    Observers say the remarks are highly unusual as African leaders are careful not to criticise one another openly.

    The BBC’s Peter Biles in the Zambian, capital, Lusaka, says Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe received a loud round of applause when he was introduced at the start of the Southern African Development Community (Sadc) summit.

    But behind the scenes there is now clearly disquiet about the impact the Zimbabwe crisis could have on the economies of the neighbouring countries, he says.

    Other nations taking part in the summit include Mozambique, Malawi, Botswana, Tanzania, Namibia, Lesotho and Swaziland.

    ‘Help’

  16. How does a country with such abundant rivers, coal and yes even uranium suffer from power cuts? There are no excuses, we must know how to manage our resources. Management of such resources is something schools are meant to teach as essential skills for our nation. If they aren’t teaching this then our politicians are sleeping or to put it more realistically are too busy stealing our money to bother about improving our capacities.

  17. who else is into IT apart from Easy and Myself may be we can come up with a solution to avoid embarrasments in future. We can have own ZESCO.

  18. Easy, by the way, it is sometime easy to use common sense. One simple logic goes like this: where your commercial power sources are unreliable, and your power network switchover system is hitless to backup(Gen), It is recommednded that you carry all critical exercises of software uploads, updates, configuration by using a Generator as a relaible power source.

    Assuming Zesco power is unreliable and availabiltiy questinable, it would have been wise for the power compnay to power the conference center using there hyped Gnerator. As usual I would not be suprised to find that, even the Generator is not properly dimensioned to carry the Center loads.

  19. Country: Uganda.
    Kill tally: 100,000-500,000 (most sources say 300,000).
    Background: The British Government declares Uganda its protectorate in 1894. Surrounding kingdoms are incorporated, with the borders becoming fixed in 1914. Independence is achieved peacefully on 9 October 1962 but rising tensions between the country’s different ethnic groups see Prime Minister Milton Obote impose a new republican constitution establishing himself as president and abolishing all the country’s kingdoms. Ethnic tensions continue to rise. Idi Amin seizes power in a coup in January 1971.

  20. We can solve this issue of this outage without complicating it. The problem as outlined by Mulongoti ias as follows:

    1. Zesco’s three different Mains supplies failed, Zesco had assured govt of protection based on these redundancy or diversity.
    2. The hyped-generator failed to respond in the specified time as assured or promised by Zesco
    3. The Delegates where at risk and our nation embarrased are the immediate effects.

    Mulongoti has solved the last problem by apologosing to the delegates and thanks God no one was injured or no MDC snipper was hanging around to take out dispiced Mugabe.

    monitoring and controlling the network is nothing than extending alarms to the NMS therefore it wont solve the problem.
    I guess you now know which problem you should solve factoring in costs and benefits.

  21. JOHN CHERIAN

    Idi Amin, 1925-2003.
    THE death of Idi Amin on August 16 in a hospital in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, at the age of 78 made headlines all over the world. Idi Amin Dada Oumee was the military dictator of Uganda from 1971 to1979. His brutality and antics ensured that he was in the international spotlight throughout his eight-year rule. International human rights groups have estimated that between 100,000 and 300,000 people, out of a population of 12 million, were killed during his rule. Most of his victims were people belonging to the Acholi, Lango and other tribes. It was his summary expulsion of over 70,000 Ugandan Asians in 1972 that signalled the beginning of Uganda’s descent into chaos. Most of those expelled were Indians and Pakistanis whose forefathers had settled in Uganda.

  22. From the world of fiction…

    An obituary for Mugabe published in ‘The Harere Morning Herald’ on 18 August 2007 eloquently summarises the predicament. “Mugabe’s tragedy, like that of so many Africans, was to have admired a civilisation whose external trappings he strongly desired, but of whose internal workings he had no idea, while at the same time he was partly enclosed in the mental world of a primitive tribalist,” the obituary concludes.

    “He was a product of multiculturalism, African-style, and able to use relatively advanced methods to achieve brutal, primitive ends. Like every African dictator, he was confusion’s masterpiece.”

  23. Idi Amin in quotes

    Amin led one of the bloodiest regimes in African history
    Former Ugandan leader Idi Amin was generally caricatured abroad as a figure of fun, because of his boorish antics and violent mood swings.
    Below is a selection of quotes attributed to Amin and comments from people who knew him.

  24. Mwaice Veteran/Pragmatist elo wapwa fye nomba bushe kanshi fyamba nshi upepa? Ulefwaikwa ukukucapa pantu ubu bushilu bwekabweka, what is job description at OP? Mulifikopo sana uko ku OP shushu Limited.Abana aba mano balelanda pali Zesco na Wiso chuchu iwe uleleta fye ifyabukopo fi Idi Amin? Bushe mwati ulomfwa mwaice iwe? We need to discuss in private off the blog, you deserve more sympathy than anger.Leka ubushilu,AM pakufuma ku Mongu ukaleteko amabula ya umunsokansoka ‘Veteran’ nalwalala sana alapena tukese mufutikila pa chulu.

  25. Guys i think lets give ZESCO a break here. We all know how inept they are, We all know that black outs are the order of the day. Infact 4min is world record by ZESCO standards. The blame should be on GRZ and the event organisers and not ZESCO. an institution like parliament ,UTH or mulungushi conf center should have an emegency generator which should kick in in the event that ZESCO does what they do best.”BLACK OUTS” So blame GRZ and the vent organisers. In my first article when i made comparison between Wireless and Fiber optic, my biggest reservation was ZESCO’s capacity to maintain the fiber network considering that they have a very bad maintainance record. In IT we call it high availability and contingency planning. Even in the US where we dont experience that many blackouts. We still invest in UPS’s just in case there is a power failure. How in hell are you going to tell me that the entire GRZ didnt know that even perfect systems fail.

  26. I think Veteran need that witchdoctor from Lusaka. The man is very sick and he need delibaration. Who employeed him ku OP. He must be withdrawn with immediate effect. If this what is paid for then we are sorry the approrpiate authorities should take action. SAGE, HK has outlined what well minded persons should have done. Imagine if some shot how would we have traced him. Why make inadquate preparations and you even announce that we are ready for the summit. SAGE the blames lies on the engineers they had ample time to prepare. Planing is very important because it helps sort out eventualities. Was there any service level agreements /management made. Who was to be answerable if anything happens.

  27. That just shows you the state of the nation. If you cant plan for important events like SADC then there is a serious problem. At this point however, i will give ZESCO a break. The problem lies with the planners and organizers. There is a million things that can couse a power outage. A car accident or a tree falling on the power lines can cause an outage. That is why they should have put a generator in place. EASY you know in IT we invest in UPS that in most cases we never get to use. But its there just in case there is a power failure. How can GRZ not think in those lines?

  28. These things keep giving us a bad name. Why not just use the generator in the first place if there was reason to believe ZESCO would disapppoint. This mistake is just unacceptable happening twice. An elevator failure locked me and my mum in-law in the early days for 25 minutes, going to 14th floor ZIMCO house. It felt slightly alkward being there. I just wonder how Mwanawasa felt.

  29. I know I usually get into heated debates with Veteran but I should say that #31 is just impersonating VETERAN and this is such a sad development.LT need to put an end to this LUNACY or else you`ll start facing Criminal Lawsuits.I think it`s time you intiated the log in system to instill some sanity.Otherwise,it was such an embarrasing event were the entire SADC leadership faced what majority of Zambians have unfortunately come to terms with of late.What will only save Sisala from being fired is that he`s a member of the family tree.

  30. Easy, why are you being crazy and want to push a boot in HK’s mouth.Only a fool cannot poit out Mugabe had the biggest threat and security requirement. HK is not your match, Talk to Francis/SAGE who does not seem to get it that ZESCO is a government unit. In cases like this, Zesco is given the task of supplying un-interruptible power. Zamtel is usually tasked to provide Hot lines/phones and internet.
    Grow up, you are feeding too much on those tasteless GMO chicken and Cow feed corn meal you cook when you miss our real Nsima..

  31. #35Chapi dont rash for conclusion see how those responsible will react. What do expect when at an operation Table power can go off. Chapi is this your real name. TOP has on many occassion advised to ignore insults. Well ID could be better incase of personal right infringements. This is the direction our cyber presence has directed. Anyway Ms Chifungula should not ask for political will but the Law enforcing agencies are responsible that why they become incomptent. There is no need of involving politician in thief case the ACC, DEC and police are there. A politican is always afriad of losing his position in case of issuing holders, just look at the statement VP made. The IG is there with his men. IF you always been looking at the president we shall not progressing fighting corruption. The president dont appoint accountants they are employeed by GRZ. GRZ is not LPM alone even a district commissioner can issue orders what is important is to have strong judicial system which not bias.

  32. Iwe #36 Impersonate, you missed it I eat ducks and fried chicks from CHina town. After I have not attacked HK I just recommended what he said. HK, SAGE and I we are all the same we are in ICT but very knowlwdegable about other fields. Yes Bob is a risk entity

  33. #41 EASY.In your previous comments you were reffering to the AG at federal level.My friend the Public Prosecuter for example in INDIANA is Carl Brizz who just got elected few months ago so don`t confuse yourself with things you don`t understand.

  34. Mulongoti is such a disappointment! On BBC, couldn’t even use proper english, instead of ,”You can only advise”(i.e. the zim authorities), he said,”You can only advance, becoz Zim is an independent country”, which left my mind boggling, till i figured out what he was trying to say. It might just be better for him to have a translator, whilst he speaks in his mother tongue, the world is used to translators after all.

    So Easy, take a leaf, try not to stick to zamblish, you will need your english skills on the international scene, to avoid,”Revenging” but “reciprocating” hospitality – am sure you recognise this one!!

  35. ZESCO power outage? It is due to corruption! Get them and let them appear via a video link court system! What do you think?

  36. Ya’all trolling,
    I understand your limitations in the virtually bipolar world full of imbalances. I take no time to disclaim your share of the Veteran ID when you are completely out of issues to insult the Head of state, those who push diversity and indeed the elite brotherhood.
    Ya’ all free to paste as much as you can under the Veteran ID considering that the Vanguard have the necessary leverage to confirm your desperation and kills challenges. I have no doubt that Ba Bonie treasures that measure of ignorance on the blog.
    After some good 30 hours plus of my time off the blogs except the last counsel made to our naturally premature Chapi on constitutional office bearers, let me not interfere with the threads you have shown such labor of pasting during my busy time on issues that matter in life. The only question is why you are wasting your time dressing me up the dignity beyond my measure ba Mudala ba Pragmatist carries? There is a clear dichotomy to understand in our respective values except shared patriotism. I’m a FT and never pragmatic to be a pragmatist.
    Now let me get back to our premature Chapi.

  37. Chapi,
    Can you see that a thugs clubs only produce thugs and not leaders? A club headed by a thug, has thugs and thrives on thuggerly. Now explain this thuggerly your thugs are revealing in house.

    PF MPS IN NEAR PUNCH-UP

    THERE was near pandemonium in Parliament last evening when Roan member of Parliament Chishimba Kambwili (PF) and his Nchanga counterpart Charles Chimumbwa (PF) almost exchanged blows but quick action by the sergeant at arms restrained the two.
    This was after Mr Chimumbwa absconded from voting when the House reached a division over the Anti-Terrorism Bill.The opposition lost the vote to the ruling MMD which garnered 56 against 48.“Go and tell the PF president that Chimumbwa has refused to vote,” Mr Chimumbwa said.

  38. people in zed lets woke up and not be taken for granted.how can a country like zed have power cut as if the govt has no money.its embarcing a gathering of head of states to have a power cut.its a signal clearly showing that people are still stealing money and lack of seriousness on the part of mulongoti and his friends.
    i hope lpm won’t give an excuse to mbaki and mugabe saying that chiluba has stolen the money.

  39. #44 Chapi, language is an art, you learn to paint a picture with it, as such you can insinuate in humour, the art of innuendo & rhyme!!

  40. I agree about the need for planning. In the 1980s I heard a true statement which said that ‘If you fail to plan, you plan to fail’. This is exactly what happened to ZESCO. Did they test their standby generator to see how long it was going to take to bring back power supply in the event of a power outage? What we need is heads to roll at Zesco and in the corridors of the event planners. We need competent ones.

  41. That is why we should have pipo in public offices must have a proven past record, but if you at the crop of political leadership of new deal, it is shameful, when l was in ndola, there was a law firm called mwanawasa and company, whose cases where won by hired lawyers, other than levy and his wife, so how do you expect him to provider leadership to the nation, he once side,’MMD lusaka provicial leadership has failed to allow me visit the local membership’ this is in lusaka, where he lives. in short as long as we have LPM with us in state house likes of sisala,mulongoti, shikapwasha, the list is endless.

  42. This is what happens wen pipo are employed not by expertise,but by connections-who the know,u know what i’m saying? That is why zed is always moving backwards while the rest of the world moves forward!!That Sisala guy,what does he know? And zesco needs competition!!!I left zambia four years ago,but my friends in zed on holiday tell me that nothing has changed!!

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