Zimbabwe’s Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa has submitted a speech to parliament that the president was supposed to give on Tuesday.
President Robert Mugabe accidentally read a state-of-the-nation address he had already delivered on 25 August.
The error has been blamed on a mix-up in the president’s secretarial office.
It took Mr Mnangagwa two hours to table the correct version of the speech because of heated questions and demands from opposition MPs for an apology.
Wednesday’s extraordinary session of parliament was called so that Mr Mugabe’s speech could be officially tabled. The state-run Herald newspaper has printed the speech in full.
The incident has prompted questions from members of the opposition over whether the 91-year-old president remains fit to lead the country.
After Mr Mugabe began speaking on Tuesday, it was not long before it dawned on those present that they had heard it all before, the BBC’s Brian Hungwe reports from the capital, Harare.
When he delivered the speech last month on the economy, he was heckled by opposition MPs.
The state broadcaster had cancelled its live feed of the opening of parliament on Tuesday fearing further disruptions.
Opposition MPs belonging to Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) reportedly kept quiet during the speech, as ruling Zanu-PF party supporters clapped at regular intervals.
However MDC spokesman Obert Gutu later told Reuters it was “a historic blunder”, adding: “Anyone who is still of a sound mind would have quickly picked it up that the speech was the wrong one.”
Presidential spokesman George Charamba said the error in delivering the wrong speech was “sincerely regretted”. The president later read the correct speech at a hotel in the capital Harare.
Mr Mugabe, who has been in power since 1980, is Africa’s oldest leader.
Credit: BBC.com
