President Professor Arthur Peter Mutharika has disclosed that he loves listening to ‘Zokonda Amayi’ programme aired every day on state controlled Malawi Broadcasting Corporation (MBC).

Mutharika said this on Wednesday when he was launching the 2017 National Tree Planting Season held at Kalambo Primary School in the capital Lilongwe.

In his speech, Mutharika said that the electricity blackout which happened this morning from 8:25am to 9:00 disturbed him as he was listening to the said programme.

“We suffer the same when electricity goes off. As I was listening to my favourite program, Zokonda Amayi, there were interruptions between 8:30 am to 9 am,” said Mutharika.

Meanwhile Electricity Supply Corporation (ESCOM) has disclosed that the Wednesday blackout was a national wide blackout.

“We are apologizing to our valued customers across the country for national electricity black out that occurred today, Wednesday 25th January 2017 at 8:25 AM.

“This was due to a technical fault that occurred on one of our 132 Kilovolts transmission lines from Tedzani lll Hydro Power Station connecting to Nkula ‘B’ Hydro Power Station,” reads in part the statement.

Added the statement: “The fault resulted in a disturbance that led to a total collapse of our system resulting in a national electricity black out. The initial restoration took 25 minutes and total system recovery was achieved by 11: 29 AM.”

The President has since urged Malawians across the country to take leading role in planting trees.