Khumbo Kachali, former Energy Minister Grain Malunga suspect political sabotage in Malawi’s persistent power outages
Former Vice President Khumbo Kachali and energy expert Grain Malunga have expressed suspicion that the prevailing power outages could be part of a grand scheme of political sabotage against the Tonse Alliance government.
Kachali and Malunga – in their separate reactions to the electricity blackouts – said sabotage should not be ruled out of the power outages.
Malunga once served as Minister of Energy, Natural Resources and Mining during the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) administration.
“I really suspect that this is internal sabotage at the two institutions,” said Malunga, who accompanied Minister of Energy Ibrahim Matola who on Monday morning engaged Energy Generation Company (EGENCO) and Electricity Supply Company of Malawi (ESCOM) in a bid to get to the bottom of the blackouts.
Kachali, writing on his Facebook page, indicated that he already talked to management of the two institutions asking them to explain to Malawians what is going on.
“Certainly, it is not in order for Malawians to have electricity only for one hour a day. It is now clear that apart from technical challenges to power generation and distribution there are some people who do not wish the Tonse Alliance administration well and are deliberately sabotaging the system,” said Kachali.
He added, “These people should be traced and when found they should be chased and should never be anywhere closer to ESCOM systems. Let us for once be serious with clearing the rubble.”
During the DPP regime, most public institutions employed political party operatives who have remained in the system despite the Tonse Alliance administration being warned against accommodating them.
Following the continuous blackouts, which got worse last week and over the weekend, the Energy Minister moved to engage EGENCO and ESCOM on orders from President Dr. Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera.
State House says in a statement that President Chakwera wanted the government to get to the bottom of the matter.
Matola told the media in Blantyre before the meeting with the two entities that his ministry has instituted an inquiry into the situation to establish if the challenges at hand are due to technical challenges or sabotage.
He said the inquiry will involve both EGENCO and ESCOM and a report will be released to the public after getting to the root of the challenges facing the energy sector.
Matola said the government will not tolerate any foul play in the energy sector as it is an economic driver.
EGENCO management team and the ministry team have now gone into a closed meeting to discuss on the energy challenges. The team is expected to disclose their resolutions to the media soon after the closed meeting.
Malawi lost 130 megawatts after the Kapichira Power Station shut down due to the devastation caused by Cyclone Ana. The power outages are becoming worse with each passing day.
Power generation and power distribution experts from ESCOM and EGENCO were at Tedzani Power Station on Sunday investigating the cause of power systems failure after the country experienced another national blackout on Sunday morning, a fourth this year alone.
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