If it sounded familiar to the lawmakers present, it is because it was: Mugabe had delivered precisely the same speech just three weeks ago in his first state of the nation address in eight years.
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In 2009, Cowen had accidentally read out 20 seconds of the US President’s speech after a teleprompter failed to load correctly.
Mugabe, 91, delivered the same 25-minute State of the Union address that he gave last month before officials realized the mistake.
Mugabe said ongoing labour reforms were part of policies meant to ease doing business in Zimbabwe in order to attract elusive investment.
Live TV and radio broadcast of the event was suspended ahead of the speech after opposition parties threatened to disrupt the event.
The mix-up was blamed on an office error.
“The error is sincerely regretted and corrective measures are being considered”, Charamba said.
Nonetheless, Mugabe pushed through the speech at a special luncheon to mark the opening of Parliament. Obert Gutu, the MDC spokesman, told Reuters: “This is a historic blunder”.
Parliament Speaker Jacob Mudenda had warned the legislators against heckling the ageing leader, saying those who remained defiant would be charged.
Mr Mugabe arrived at parliament in a vintage black Rolls-Royce in the company of his wife, Grace, and inspected a guard of honour.
This comes after his drenching expose yesterday when he confidently read a wrong speech in what analysts say demonstrate his incapacitation and inability to reason as a normal human being. In September 2011, Wikileaks published a cable that cited the Zimbabwean bank governor saying the president had terminal prostate cancer, an allegation Mugabe has denied.
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MDC members were forced to sit quietly after the 91-year-old opened his speech, despite the fact they realised they had heard it all before – while supportive members of the ruling Zanu-PF party regularly clapped at intervals.
