Kazako engages Press Corporation plc on future of Malawi Telecommunications Limited
Minister of information Gospel Kazako on Friday engaged Press Corporation limited (PCL) plc executive management on the future of struggling Malawi Telecommunications Limited (MTL) where government has a 20 percent stake.
The minister said the engagement with PCL, a majority shareholder in MTL after the privatisation of the government entity in 2005, was one way of showing that government is doing things differently by following up on its investments.
He said: “MTL poses a lot of questions that we must all answer, should there be problems you should be speaking to a partner that is well-informed and we find solution together.”
PCL group chief executive officer George Patridge said MTL is geared to expand its presence in the telecommunication sector now that it has an integrated licence and is looking for various ways of raising capital.
“There has been some technological changes and MTL’S hands were tied because the licence that it had did not allow it to operate wireless technology but now things have changes,” he said.
Patridge said what is sad is that some of the debts owed to MTL are from government and parastatals.
He said the new integrated licence, will revamp MTL, which is in the process of finding capital to bounce back as a telecommunication giant in the country.
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Hon. Minister, you know the communication sector very well. Indeed you are one in Malawi here. Please do not let PCL or even Press Trust sell you their smoky stories about MTL. MTL has been in trouble for many years and PCL has turned a blind eye to what was going on. Frankly PCL is not able to fix MTL. They are just buying time and managing to push MTL under the rug in the hope that nobody cares. Halas, now comes the great Hon. Minister Gospel Kazabo who will face the issue heads on. Surely you will soon discover a lot of unorthodox practices. Please do not give us as your great reputation may suffer. Thank you and best of luck to you
Honorable Minister, how about the US investor? Why have Press and government not concluded the transaction? Press must come clean to MTL and its employees and explain why they must continue to suffer of a lack of vision, lack of funding and lack of perspective. In your capacity as the head of the sector, you can ask Press CEO to provide better explanation than the vague and illogical statement that has been reproduced in this article. Who is this CEO kidding? Malawians are not that dumb, are they? For those in the know, I am not even going to attempt to defend my fellow countryman who is a big shot financial adviser, manages one of Malawi biggest accounting firms, has investment in his personal capacity in numerous industries, some of which in competition with his clients and who Press management just love to give all juicy contracts to (why?). Thank you Honorable Minister for your courageous statement. Now lets see what comes next
Mister Minister, first congratulations for talking about MTL. The previous government has closed its eyes on this great Malawian company as well as on much of everything else. Please ask more questions and the answers or lack of answers will shock you. Please ask your office to get hold of all Nyasa Times’s articles on MTL and PCL and read very insightful comments that have been posted. Those comments have more depth than the shallowness of what PCL’s un-competent boss said. He is obviously not interested in MTL as much as been done to kill it from “stealing” TNM to more recently selling MTL’s infrastructure to OCL for a dime, but a dime that benefit PCL–just as a seller is selling to him/herself. How ethical is that? Lots has been said about all of this in Nyasa time, so please kindly refer to it. Lots has been said about the incompetent consultant that PCL keep hiring to prepare MTL for a transaction, but the chap cannot tell his right hand from the left one. Again congratulations for speaking out. Thank you
PCL should relinquish the shares to Malawians atleast 40%. We can source the funds required. It’s time for change. They should not hold Malawians to ransom.
press has just lied to the minister, trust me the company has been saying those same words for the past 10 years. panopa sheriffs have closed their Lilongwe main office for 2 weeks now anthus sakupita kuntchito because the company ili ndi ngongole zakatangale. At the moment in this company muli the CEO who is in human and selfish team behind him. 4 years without salary increment considering rising cost of living is not fair to the employees. employees in MTL are crying bwana minister but nothing really has been done, its was very stupid idea to sell this company especially to let this evil plc to take over. Chikaonda tried, stole millions from this company with political career in his mind, ali kuti pano? now CEO is trying to achieve that also, people are watching, you will regret this. if govt doesnt take over, trust me mr kazako, this company wont last 10 years. too much corruption within. akumazibera okha ma cables and make noise all over
Mtl stole from us. You sold us your phones and the routers,before using them for a year you said no more service, why didn’t you give us our monies back. I’m now keeping 2 white elephants in my house. That was daylight robbery. How can you sell a product, next minute you say it’s nolonger in use? I think you need to take your gadgets back n refund us.
BOMA by all means must own MTL,Post Office, ESCOM and Water Board ndi zina. Noone can transact with government business without having an account with Post Office, MTL and utility bill. We just just need commitment to ensure that there is efficiency in these institutions…
The biggest mistake govt made was to sell MTL to PRESSCORP, they simply wanted to kill the company, their interest was TNM which was then MTL company, it is very embarssing for PRESSCORP Patridge to be talking such rubbish when he knows very that MACRA modified the licences 10 yrs ago to be universal mobile licence such that MTL can also be a mobile operator just like Airtel, yet thousands of mobile users are complaining of huge data bundles being expensive, MTL is struggling because of PRESS, take your hands ioff MTL and u will see how it fliushes, its a company that already has everything tehcnically
Simply out, Press Corporation is a company killer. The list of companies it has killed can fill a page! No wonder it was forced to withdraw from the London stock exchange.
True PCL is a killer company, how d u explain the fact that TNM was created by MTL but PCL hates the founder that much, if there is a compnay u cant wish to kill is MTL considering that its amother company in Malawi that had created everything as far as telecommunications is concerned
This is well said. The fact is that a lot of people have benefitted from the voluntary demise of MTL. PCL management is not genuine. They don’t care about MTL. MTL’s book value is now a drop in PCL’s book (less than 2 percent if that). They have stripped up all the good assets (including lately the infrastructure given to OCL for cheap) and now they are just making arrangements to put MTL in a coffin, ready for burial. MTL is near dead. After these bosses have completed their scheme of ripping off all the remaining assets and selling them to friends and family, MTL shall disappear. No condolence messages will be sent to workers, families, consumers, clients or even to Minister GK. Last year, these gents identified a partner yet decided to abandon the discussions, perhaps because they did not see their own interests in the transaction. I heard that they hire a crocked and incompetent consultant paying him top dollars to kill everything. My friends who work for MTL and PCL are so disgusted that they have since been crying. I am crying too. Sad for Malawi. Things will never change. Tonse?
Its a shame brother, we lack vibrant govt that must take these issues head on that way a country can be transformed, Kazako has tried to engage these thugs, but he must push the pressure so fast so that PCL executive management doesnt hav e a breather on this