Man electrocuted in Chikwawa

A 27-year-old man was electrocuted in the early hours of Wednesday in Chikwawa District after what the police say was a vandalism mission of electricity copper cables gone wrong.

Chikwawa Police spokesperson Dickson Matemba confirmed the death of Masautso Ganamba of Malemia Village in Traditional Authority Ngabu.

Matemba said Ganamba died while trying to steal a copper cable at a transformer located near a maize mill at Malemia.

He had dug the underground cables and continued to disconnect it from an Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (Escom) electricity pole.

“Unfortunately, he touched a live electric wire and got electrocuted and fell down from a pole,” Matemba said.

A postmortem at Ngabu Health Centre confirmed that Gabamba died of electrocution.

“We are advising people to avoid tampering with Escom properties to avoid similar incidents,” Matemba said.

Escom Public Relations Manager Innocent Chitosi confirmed the incident and said it should serve as deterrent to those engaged in vandalism of Escom property.

Vandalism of Escom electricity towers, cables, earth mats, transformers and tampering with meters cost the corporation an estimated K1 billion in the last 12 months for a period ending May 2021.

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