Mutharika ‘lied’ to say Malawi did not invest in expansion of power generation past 50 years
President Peter Mutharika has been accused of giving “wrong” information to parliament when he told the August House that the worsening electricity blackouts, which have heavily dented his rule, is due to failure by the previous administrations to invest in the energy sector, adding that his administration has lined up medium and long-term interventions to deal with the challenges.
In his 30-minute address titled ‘Rising Above Macroeconomic Stability’, Mutharika said:“Let us be honest to admit that we did not invest to expand our energy generation. For 50 years, we kept thinking as if Malawi would remain what it was in the1960s.’
However, Nation on Sunday newspaper reports that a simple analysis of power upgrades on Escom website, www.escom.mw would show that past administrations have been upgrading the power stations from as early as 1966 to as late as 2014.
The paper a.so quote Institute of Policy Interaction (IPI) executive director Rafiq Hajat saying that the President, as a master of a ship in an ocean, must do everything within his power to gather correct facts.
He said citizens always expect their leader to be honest, and on top of things, warning that it paints a bad picture of the President, and his government, when he tells the nation something not factual.
“It would be a lie to say for the past 50 years no investment was made in the power sector. It doesn’t have to take anyone to explain that what the President meant was that the nation did not invest to expand energy generation for the past 50 years. This is not correct,” Nation on Sunday quoted Hajat as saying.
He said Mutharika should have acknowledged efforts the previous administrations put to improve the power generation.
Major and noticeable upgrades, according to the Escom website, were done in 1980, 1986 and 1992, when Kamuzu’s administration added to the grid 120MW through Nkula B Power Station.
In 1996, under Bakili Muluzi’s UDF administration, Escom, through Tedzani II Power Station, according to the website, added 50MW, and an additional 4.5MW the same year through Wovwe Power Station in Karonga.
Under the same UDF administration, an investment in power generation was made through Kapichira Power Station, which brought 128 MW to the grid.
The current installed capacity for electricity is 351MW, but of late it has fallen to 160MW, which Escom, says has led to the current power crisis, it reported.
As President Mutharika entered the august House on Friday to deliver his opening address, opposition parliamentarians, booed him, forcing Speaker Richard Msowoya to restore order—reminding the House that noise would not be tolerated.
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Bushiri and simbi ingowapasani dzukoli agawane otherwise
Ndilakwapo malankhulidwe
Kamuzu and MCP loved Malawi. The leaders that followed are thieves and one of them is in exile because she stole our billions.
Wati? Tiyowoyenge unenesko…the previous leaders did their part and it is not honest to say they did nothing. Zinthu zikavuta let us find solutions..
Hey!!! this ddp government is full of these Nachisales-type of thinking people.. These Nachisales do not even have basic knowledge of where we are coming from.. People who cannot even differentiate their right hand from the left. To the entire ddp nachisales their peter Mutharika is demi-God he can’t go wrong. Peter is NOT being truthful za history ya energy investment in Malawi, the NaChisales say no. WAKUTETA! WAKUTETA!!!
Some of these Nachisales may in fact be beneficiaries of the free primary education ya Atcheya. Anthu oti sanapsye bwino ndi school.
Koma ngati za abwanawo (a president ndi gulu la matchona anzowo) one would say that’s the problem kukakhala ku exile uli mwana, and no one is chasing or after you at home at all, but out sheer ambition ati ndikaphunzire ku US kunja.
Kamuzu real enemies, of course not imaginary ones as some people would like to claim these days, (enemy No. 1) as the Ngwazi himself used to say many many times) were Kanyama Chiume and Chipembere (and others) of course at least achina late Gwanda and Aleke Banda. Then later Chihana and/or in a way Tcheya became the real Ngwazi main threats/ challengers in his political life. At least not this fake ddp NaChisales posing FAKELY big at the moment..Zabodza izi, atidye nawo.
Now these self-exiled matchona, went ku US because of their sheer ambition for better education not on political reasons. As a result they never learnt basic Civics as a subject in primary school and now they come with their sheer ignorance cheating people (misinforming) Malawians there hasn’t been any investment in energy sector for 50yrs.? What??? Who are these fake people trying to fool!
YOU matchonas. Go to hell komweko with your (fake) lack of basic knowledge the Chisales and NaChisales theory.
But ma buku are still there go read them rather than cheating people with FAKE nachisales knowledge. After all chifukwa chokula mitima kwanu ko Bingu refused to sign a relatively affordable energy deal ndi a Mozambique pano ati mukufuna kugula ma genset. Okay, Let me tell you what! I have a small genset and for it we usually spend Mwk6,000 to run for less than 5hrs
APM shud just admit that him and DPP have failed to take care of Malawians. pliz let the resign. Malawians are tired of these people!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Nachisale ndiwe chitsilu..maboodza sakuthandizeni…DPP out..
Unfortunately, the people who believe that previous governments made investments in power are suffering from a toxic type of amnesia called ‘short-termism’ which is a disease that has afflicted Africa and Malawi for a long time. The so-called investments which Hajat and The Nation are bleating about as apparently made by previous investment were simply void with zero-effect on our country’s energy demands because the leaders of the time lacked foresight. It went down the drain and no sane person should consider that as an investment – evidence? The extent to which we are struggling with persistent blackouts today. Those myopic leaders never considered that one day demand for electricity would be high – they never thought about high population, increased rural-urban migration, high energy demand due to the proliferation of technological use, and stupidly, clang to ESCOM’s poor infrastrural development plan. Hajat is very good at making inferences using chicken mathematics where o+1 = 2. It does not surprise me that Malawi and Africa continue to be backward because we glorify short-termism. For the blackouts to end, we need huge investments in energy combined with real foresight of our needs and the challenges we might face today and the future in relation to power. We need to link this to other key policies too. Did the previous government do that, NO of course, and that is why my conclusion is APM is right.
if your bloody APM is right then what solution does he have other than hiring and firing staff instead of bowing down to mozambique and actually lining it with that Nsanje port deal.. what happened with that?? The deal was just swept under the rug, yet under Bingu Administration millions went into that investment, I think his brother pocketed that money to upgrade his ndatha farm. We wouldn’t be having this crisis if it weren’t from them. Hence Nachisale I agree with the rest of the people commenting here that your APM has not invested into the energy sector other than reaping where he did not sow!!! Very foolish of you to think that we should not politicise this since it is government in the first place that interfere with every parastatal organisation within Malawi. If they could actually leave them alone and allow them to work effectively then we wouldn’t be having 99 problems!!!
If your power output is largely dependent on lake water levels, it doesn’t matter how much you invest in the infrastructure, the power will fail when the lake levels drop low. If State House suffered power cuts like real Malawian citizens, businesses, APM would have sorted it a long time ago, but he lives in a bubble, insulated from the day to day problems faced by his citizens and the country’s businesses. He may even think he speaks the truth, if he is badly advised and doesn’t seek the truth for himself.
Nachisale go to school I will give you full scholarship. The story is well started.
so this bastard think he can brainwash us by another load of lies. wasnt he in the past rulers?????????????? wats wrong with these power hungery pipo. wat does he want? stuff him out. this is wat we call lack of knowledge of wat they want to do. cisilu ca munthu
So, if APM is wrong why is ESCOM generating less power than is demanded? How foolish of Hajat and the Nation to even sugggest that electricity has been endlessly upgraded. President Mutharika is right, previous governments did not invest in energy because if they did there should not be blackouts today. This is simple to understand by even the dullest. Stop politicising issues.
A Nachisale simunamvepo kuti munthu anali wachuma koma tsopano wasauka chifukwa chachibwana. Escom imapanga invest in power generation during the previous administrations as indicated here and that is a fact. So it means the current leadership ikunama. Just visit the escom website simple. The current government chomwe ikudziwa is just milking escom without feeding it. Shame
I think ESCOM is complain a bout water level is low and forced them to close other stations.and you should think twice before posting your comments
Inu muli mmalawi mommuno..? Munalekeza folomu chani? Seems you cant understand what this man Mr Hajat is telling the nation…
Inuyo ndiye muli very dull nkulu, previous governments invested energy in line with that times population, get statistics you will find that all previous parties invested something unto power and only dpps 8 years rule has no any investment. Now, your mr blackout was telling people lies that previous governments invested nothing on power generation, later he will be telling Malawians its wrong to call him a liar yet he is even lying in parliament! This is shameful because these lies are coming from someone who is leading the whole nation through an oath. Then you are defending this lier! I believe you are a lier too or you are suffering from subjective poverty
Just the escom website that is being quoted! Other administrations did something! It’s up to APM to perfect the works others started
Who is dull in this equation: Hajat, Nachisale or President?
Nachisale tsopano!!!!!!!
Nachisale! Nachisale! Nachisale! how many times have I called you?
Thats what happens when you want to twist the story, he himself is aware that During Bingu and Himself nothing has happened to the Energy sector……no wonder he still repeats the very same song..as country we should not opt for Genset as short and medium remedy to the problem……..in fact it will be worse