Tunisia’s Saied Calls the Power Cuts Sabotage and Names No One
TUNISIA · POLITICS
Key Facts
—The claim: President Kaïs Saïed said investigations had established that recent water and power cuts were not routine technical failures but deliberately planned acts of sabotage.
—The setting: He chaired a meeting at Carthage Palace on Wednesday 26 August. The presidency released the account the next day, carried by TAP, the state news agency.
—Who was there: Prime Minister Sarra Zaâfrani Zenzri attended, with Public Works and Housing Minister Salah Zouari, who is also acting industry, mines and energy minister, and Agriculture and Water Resources Minister Ezzeddine Ben Cheikh.
—The utilities: The chief executives of STEG, which supplies electricity and gas, and SONEDE, which distributes water, were both present.
—The accusation: Saïed said the enemies of the homeland and their allies had been unmasked, and that such criminal designs would fail whatever their origin. He named nobody.
—What is missing: No evidence, no arrests, no investigating agency and no list of incidents has been published. The presidency did not say which investigations reached the conclusion.
—The scale: Electricity demand hit a record 6,000 megawatts on 21 July. Cuts rotated through Greater Tunis, the north, northwest, centre, south and Sfax, some lasting more than ten hours.
—The other explanation: Temperatures neared 50 degrees Celsius this summer against years of drought and under-investment. The main union blames structural problems and mismanagement, and the claim came a week after street protests demanded the president’s resignation.
Tunisia power cuts and water outages were the result of deliberately planned sabotage rather than ordinary faults, President Kaïs Saïed told ministers and utility chiefs in remarks released on 27 August. He offered no evidence and named no suspect.
What was said about the Tunisia power cuts
Saïed chaired the meeting at Carthage Palace on Wednesday 26 August. The presidency’s account was released on 27 August and carried by TAP, the state news agency.
He said the recurrence of incidents across several regions could not be seen as, in his words, “simple isolated events”. Investigations, he said, had established that the disruptions were not routine technical failures but deliberate acts of sabotage.
Their purpose, he said, was to stir tension, fuel lies and rumours, and deprive citizens of their right to essential services.
He added that the enemies of the homeland and their allies had been unmasked, and that such criminal designs would fail whatever their origin. He closed by saying Tunisians no longer need press releases but acts.
Who was in the room
Prime Minister Sarra Zaâfrani Zenzri attended, together with Salah Zouari, the Minister of Public Works and Housing, who is also acting minister for industry, mines and energy.
Ezzeddine Ben Cheikh, the Minister of Agriculture, Water Resources and Fisheries, was also present. So were the chief executives of STEG and SONEDE, the state electricity and water companies.
That is the full operational chain for both utilities in one room. It was also the second time in five weeks that Saïed had gathered this group.
On 22 July he convened cabinet members and the same two utility chiefs, and called outages lasting more than 24 hours unacceptable. The cuts continued anyway.
What the statement does not contain
No evidence was published. No arrests were announced, no agency was named as conducting the investigations, and no list of the incidents in question was released.
The phrase that carries the weight is that investigations had established the conclusion. Which investigations, run by whom, and on what material, is not stated anywhere in the account.
The perpetrators are described only as enemies of the homeland and their allies. That is an accusation that cannot be tested, and it is reported here as the president’s assertion rather than as a finding.
Sabotage of a national grid or a water network is a serious criminal matter in any country. If it has occurred, there would normally be a prosecuting authority, a case number and a charge.
None of those has been announced. Until they are, the claim sits in the same category as the rumours the president says the saboteurs are spreading.
The ordinary explanation is also available
Tunisia has had an exceptional summer. Temperatures approached 50 degrees Celsius in recent weeks, and the national meteorological institute measured anomalies of 8 to 13 degrees above seasonal norms in July.
Demand followed. National electricity consumption hit a record 6,000 megawatts on 21 July, against a previous record of 5,600 megawatts set the week before and a 2025 summer peak of about 5,250, according to STEG officials.
STEG responded with published load-shedding schedules, which are planned cuts it says protect the grid from collapse. Unscheduled outages were widely reported on top, in Greater Tunis, the north, northwest, centre, south and Sfax, some lasting more than ten hours.
Because most of Tunisia’s water is moved by electric pumps, every power cut became a water cut. Bottled-water production was hit just as demand peaked, and supermarkets rationed purchases.
An independent water observatory logged 608 disruption reports in July and described a critical water emergency. Years of drought sit underneath all of it.
The UGTT, the country’s main trade union, offered a different diagnosis in the same weeks: years of structural problems and mismanagement that left the utilities unequipped for the heat. It called for an emergency rescue plan, and none of this ordinary explanation requires a saboteur.
The politics around the claim
The sabotage framing arrived after a difficult month for the presidency. On 20 August, hundreds of protesters in central Tunis demanded Saïed’s resignation over failing services and rising prices, in one of the largest demonstrations of the summer.
Protests over water and power had already erupted in several regions in July and early August. The 25 July anniversary of Saïed’s consolidation of power brought its own opposition rally in the capital.
A claim of sabotage without a named culprit moves the blame from the state to an enemy nobody has to produce. That is why the missing evidence is the story rather than a footnote.
Why an outside reader should pay attention
How a government explains a utility failure is a reasonable proxy for how it intends to fix it. Sabotage and under-investment call for entirely different responses.
Tunisia has declined an International Monetary Fund programme and is financing itself domestically, with households holding an unusually large stock of cash outside the banking system. Reliable public services are part of what that domestic financing has to pay for.
For anyone with exposure to Tunisia, whether as an investor, an employer or a resident, the practical question is straightforward. Whether the electricity and the water work next summer, and what is being spent to make sure they do.
This is reporting on a political statement rather than a finding of fact, and no evidence for the sabotage claim has been published. It should be read on that basis.
Frequently asked questions
What did President Saïed say about the outages?
He said investigations had established that the water and power cuts were deliberately planned acts of sabotage rather than routine technical failures. He described their purpose as stoking tension and depriving citizens of basic services.
Did he name anyone?
No. He referred only to the enemies of the homeland and their allies, and no arrests, investigating agency or evidence were announced.
How bad have the cuts been?
Electricity demand hit a record 6,000 megawatts on 21 July. Scheduled and unscheduled cuts ran through Greater Tunis, the north, northwest, centre, south and Sfax, some lasting more than ten hours, and water supplies failed where pumps lost power.
Is there another explanation for the cuts?
Yes. Temperatures neared 50 degrees Celsius, demand broke records, and the utilities carry years of financial strain and under-investment against a backdrop of drought. The main union blames mismanagement, and no public evidence of sabotage has been produced.
Connected Coverage
Tunisia’s domestic financing squeeze shows up in the cash Tunisians hold outside the banking system and in inflation slowing to a four-month low in July. The regional picture is in Africa: The New Scramble, with more on our Northern Africa hub.
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