Mutharika urges patience on Malawi electricity crisis: ‘I know people are hurting with blackouts’
As Malawians are growing increasingly concerned with the electricity woes the country is currently facing, President Professor Peter Mutharika has appealed for patience, saying the problem will hopefully be minimized by next year as there are solutions in place to help the country both in the short term, medium term and long term.
Mutharika gave the assurance on Wednesday during a surprise visit to Energy Generation Company (EGENCO) and Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (ESCOM) to express his personal frustration with the current electricity situation in the country.
President Mutharika said that his Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) led government has put the electricity woes as a priority.
“I am obviously concerned about the power problems we are having in this country because without power we cannot transform this country. Investors cannot come because there is no power, so power is very crucial and we have put it as a priority. I know that the blackouts are very painful, they are hurting people and businesses and so on and so forth, and I know what the country is going through,” Mutharika said.
Mutharika further stressed that the problem lies on the fact that as a country, we have never invested in the energy sector all these years hence this is the first time the country will be investing in the sector.
State House spokesman Mgeme Kalilani said in a statement seen by Nyasa Times that Mutharika’s visit to the two organizations was to express his “personal frustration” with the situation where people have to stay without power for longer hours.
Kalilani said the President Mutharika shares the frustrations that come with the frequent power outages on both local and foreign investors.
The State House Press Officer, however, said the first citizen appreciates some efforts deployed by EGENCO and ESCOM to address the problem, citing the installation of generators to boost electricity mega watts as one case in point.
“For example, the President noted efforts being taken by ESCOM to deal with the massive blackouts by constructing the Kamwamba Power Generation Plant as one long term measure,” said Kalilani, adding that the Malawi leader is not sleeping over the issue until it is solved.
ESCOM Board Chairperson, Perks Ligoya, attributed the power outages to low water levels in Lake Malawi and the Shire River have negatively impacted on the country’s generation capacity
He said due to the low water levels, EGENCO is only producing 180 mega watts instead of the demanded 300 mega watts.
“Now, out of those 180 mega watts, 70 mega watts are distributed to sensitive institutions such as hospitals, water boards… so that people can have water. Now that leaves very little, only about 100 mega watts to be distributed to everyone in Malawi,” said Ligoya.
He said due to this situation, they have to distribute the available mega watts equitably and not favouring one area from another. The ESCOM board chair added that people’s frustrations were understandable.
Escom chief executive officer Evelyn Mwapasa also said that the current generation capacity is less as demand is 300 megawatts while its sister company Egenco, is producing a total of 160 megawatts.
Egenco chief executive officer William Liabunya said the Head of State advised them to look into alternative source of energy to hydro-electricity.
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The presedent is the last person to tell us to be patient with elecriticity problem. This guy and the majority of the cabinet ministers have been around over the last ten years. Life is becoming worse in their hands. How can a country fail to provide electricity to less than 10% of the population? No electriciity, children still learning under trees, 2-4 children sharing a bed in hospitals, no food for the majority of the popukation.
The leaedrship has to be serious. STOP stealing the money and invest properly. Please guys stop shaming us.
Lost trust in DPP. How long has it taken the President to realise the Electricity problem. People have died in hospital’s , businesses not to mention. Now after by Election shock you realise there is a problem. We cannot be taken for granted anymore. Come 2019 others will take over. Enough is enough. We are tired of business as usual.
Crashes in a meeting and later urge for patience? What type of leadership is this! “Rush and wait” the real theme of our current administration. No “hard work” bla bla…., the technocrats at ESCOM blame the politics for their failure and now suddenly the government accuses ESCOM? ?? But patience??? I
Consult Dr. Joyce Banda on this one. She had this problem under control during her time.
There were power outages when I was last in Malawi in 2011. That is SIX years of being patient! How much longer must Malawians be patient? Is that all the President has to offer, ‘Be patient”. Does he seriously expect to be re-elected in 2019?
This president should stop fooling people that he is genuinely concerned with daily blackouts perennially facing Malawians. In fact he just hears about blackouts, he doesn’t even physically experience such.
How many times have Malawians been COMPLAINING of abuse of state funds, corruption by ddp thieves both in government sectors and state owned enterprises yet the president (without remorse faking concern here) shields these ddp thugs or just looks away.
Malawians should just ignore such insincere and insensitive dramatization by peter. This is just candid political posturing after suffering a political TOK in the recent by-elections. This is the guy with an embarrassing bloody nose trying to buy sympathy from the very people he arrogantly chooses not to listen to. Now he wants to make the same people he abuses believe he is a concerned president yet all his actions are in fact to the contrary
He went to ESCOM to just intimidate and bully helpless and hapless ESCOM bosses. The ONLY reason he was not told off is because he is state president.
For God’s sake who is a kid here NOT to know that parastals are actually ddp cash-cows. In fact just recently the same president faking concern here went for an UNGA for close to a month, as usual with bloated entourage (likukumwe la ddp). Upon coming back he NEVER even bothered to explain to Malawians what he was doing in US. Even Grace Mugabe came back early. Ngati ku US ko nkoyamba kupita. This guy is simply careless.
Unfortunately these cows have become too thin now to satisfy ddp insatiable appetite for luxurious life. No wonder now services from these utility entities are collapsing. Dying thin cows.
So the president should stop fooling people, shading crocodile tears and mock Malawians as if he is genuinely concerned about the plight of Malawiians He is just laying. Don’t pity him, let him JUST continue NURSING HIS BLOODY NOSE after a TOK in the recent by-election, kkkkkkkkk
Anthu ena samaganiza mumangotukwana president ngati iyeyo ndi Mulungu or atabwetapo abuses any onyenga Obama ku uzimu kutsiriza kuthupo mukuganiza kuti azawayha mavutowa .makoment ena anachita kuwoneka kuti walemba momento you ndi cigawenga chokuba chimene mumatukwanira ndichani osangofotokoza mfundozo bwanji mwaiwala 2014 mukateronso iyeyo DPP mafuta asowa force Iowa koma nthawi Italia tinangomva kuti DPP oyeeeeeeeeeeee
So this meeting did not yield something tangible enough to revert power blackout. Now my advice to government is let us learn from what other countries such as Zambia, RSA, Kenya etc did to iron out this problem. All they did in short is to import power from other countries and we can do the same both as a short and interim measure.
Escom/egenco warned the nation in June this year than since the lake level was much lower than at same time last year we were likely to experience much more prolonged power outages this year. And just to remind one another at the pick of the blackouts last year in December we could go more than 48 hours without electricity. Some took heed of Escom advice and put in place standby power sources like petrol/diesel generators. But many have found out that they can’t afford to run on generators and have abandoned them to join the crying poor. It is thus surprising to me that as a nation we cant appreciate the problem facing Escom/egenco/govt and we want to blackmail govt to install diesel generators to produce 70 megawatts of electricity. Those who have been to Likoma can agree with me that the island is very small and has electricity for not more than 10 hours a day but every week more than 10 drums of diesel are offloaded to generate not even half megawatt. So how many drums will be required to generate 70 megawatts 24 hours a day. Just for your information Malawi’s monthly export earnings is around U$60 million and out of that we import U$30 million petroleum products monthly. If we add diesel to generate 70 megawatts of electricity we may end up using the entire U$60 million leaving nothing for medicinal and agricultural imports. Talk of solar electricity it is just too expensive in both land and equipment and unreliable too. But as some are suggesting may be with MCP rains will be coming regulary, the lake levels will pickup, Malawi exports will pick up so that importing diesel will not be a problem and solar electricity will become cheap and reliable. MAY BE!!!
Whether Malawians are a patient or passive lot I cannot tell. What I can tell though without fear of contradicting myself is that Malawi is so easy to rule. Our leaders easily get away with every rubbish they throw unto us. They cash on political, tribal and regional divisions existing in this country. Whether you are a DPP sympathizer or not, a Lhomwe or not, a Southerner or not, we are all being affected by these persistent blackouts. I am surprised at the lengths some people will go to defend the indefensible not based on facts but based on political, tribal and regional affiliations. In other countries, the people would have risen up.
When one under performs, his performance does not suddenly become an achievement just because he is one of your own. An under achievement will remain thus forever. The picture above depicts members of one tribal grouping discussing an issue of national importance. I wonder if any meaningful business was discussed other than “how is home and uncles, what can we do to consolidate our power, who should we reward with a contract to supply transformers etc etc”. Can the people with HE honestly tell him the truth other than the usual hero-worshiping and hand clapping? Your guess is as good as mine. It can be argued that members from other tribes were also in attendance. While I am not disputing that fact, the focus was on these key five as they hold the power to make decisions.
Our problem as Malawians is that we are easily fooled. Malawi is so easy to rule. Our leaders get away with every rubbish they throw onto us. Our leaders cash on the tribal and regional divisions existing in the country. Whether you are a DPP sympathizer or not, a Lhomwe or not, a Southerner or not, we are all being affected by these persistent blackouts. It is very surprising that some people will go to great lengths defending the indefensible, not based on facts but on political, tribal and regional affiliations.
When one under performs, his performance does not suddenly become an achievement just because he is one of your own. An under achievement will remain thus forever. When you look at the picture above, you will note that all the people there are from one tribal grouping, the Lhomwes. Are we sure any meaningful business was discussed, or it was all about “how is home and your malume, how do people look at us, how can we consolidate power, what do we need to do to remain in power, who should we reward with a contract to supply transformers etc etc”. I wonder if those people captured in the picture were able to tell the president the truth, other than what they know best, hero worshiping and hand clapping.
Kkkkk instead of you APM calling these idiots to your Sanjika Palace you are going to their board meetings. Ukufuna akuone ndani kuti you are concerned? Tell us where is the money for Generators and money for repairs of Nkula Falls? Zaaaziiiii nxhiiii!! anthu inu simumva.
..Mutharika further stressed that the problem lies on the fact that as a country, we have never invested in the energy sector all these years hence this is the first time the country will be investing in the sector…
😂😂😂😂 What do u mean bwana president?
Alomwe kuba ndiye number 1, kodi wapampando wa Escom Board akutitu anasokoneza ndalama zogulira ma Genset, ndiye zinena president ameneyi zithekapo apa? Dziko silingatukuke ataaa, koma ziwani inu abwana a DPP, mwalephera kuyendesa dziko anthu tikuzunzika, selfish leader, mwalemera ndi misonkho yathu. Chowuluka siku lina chizatera.
Your Excellency,
Your visit to the ESCOM HQ has come at time when investors and the general public needed confidence in your leadership.
The expectation of the visit was high. The business community and households of every Malawian were keen and had high hopes that with your visit, assurances and timelines will be given. The current situation is that ESCOM operates without duly informing the public on a layout schedule. Previously, they would issue a press release detailing areas and time where load shedding would be taking place. This is not being done. The saying that “Lack of Planning leads to Planning to fail” is exactly what is happening now.
They are areas where blackouts are not being experienced (I would assume that state residents being one of them), so when you say that you know what people are going through is not true. We struggle with supply of water in our homes due the same power failures( leading unclean toilets which can give rise to deseases, running water for consumption and bathing), we struggle to use house appliances, we struggle to charge phones, we struggle get essential services(Health centres, Hospitals,Clinics, etc), we struggle to earn an income( Barber shops, restaurants, Internet café, etc,).
What I did not expect to hear was to be told to be patient. What I expected to hear were plans on how you are going to deal with the problem. I have already been told to be patient by Cabinet and his deputies. I have already been told to be patient by ENGECO and ESCOM officials.
What I wanted, what Malawian want, what the business community expects from you are results. PERIOD!!!!
How can I be patient when people are dying in Hospitals due to no power when an operation is required. How can I be patient when my right to earn an income is being infringed. How can I be patient? HOW?
“have patence”
easy to say than do
Mwalephala Basi too slow to act
We are losing our patience over this matter by each passing day. My putting on blue everyday is not a sign I love the DPP anymore. I just love the colour as the party is no longer part of the solution to the problems Malawi is facing. It is instead a burden for all Malawians. Will offload this load come 2019, come fast please.
Timamva zomwezo daily. Nothing new. moti ma enginer a Escom amadikira president awauze za obvious zo. Boma please spare Escom and letbit invest properly. Ndinu nomwe Mr president mukutsogolera kuba ku escom. nde mufuna kutiuza chian. za ziiii!
APM we are tired of these nonsense stories, its not three years you’re in power, just wait 2019 and you will see,palibeso zobera that time coz Saulosi Chilima is also tired with you..
I wonder who may have reminded who to ensure the presidential flag is carried along on this “surprise” visit.
It all means it was not a surprise visit.
Stop telling us nonsense fix the problem first not your bra bra
So after all that publicity stunt you didn’t resolve anything??? And you are asking for patience? Seriously ? You are fortunate that a Malawi ndi atulo, ogona kwambiri. In other countries we would be marching in the streets for your ouster……..2019 can’t come soon enough……..TATOPA!!!!!!
A waste of time in my view and a ploy to blindfold Malawians that government is concerned with unavailability of electricity. Last year about this time Mr Bright Msaka, Minister responsible for electricity was on MBC where I would say meticulously detailed what government was doing to ameliorate the electricity problem including disiel generators and Mozambique interconnection. It’s amazing that we are today talking about the same thing….. the disiel generators, interconnection, solar. We are a country that has mustered the art of solving problems by taking about what we will do and end up doing nothing. This planned trip to ESCOM is surely part of the package of blindfolding. I think we should criminalize the art of passionately articulating a solution to Malawians when in actual fact it’s just blindfolding for cheap political mileage so Malawians are cheated no more.
I have heard this too many times. Patience until when? Until you get out of power?
Your Excellency,
You must be Joking. The MCC compact gave us USD350M to invest into Power. Where did this investment go to and why should we believe you this time round when you are asking us to be patient?. The general principle in life is to lose patience with mediocrity and that is what ESCOM has done. Since 2014 when you took over, Malawians have been patient. You want one DPP term to last whilst Malawians are being patient with this bafoonery acts of ESCOM? You have just confirmed your full lack of patriotism and danced to the popular tune of those that allege you have been sleeping on the Job. It is only in Malawi where such NONSENSE CAN BE TOLERATED THIS LONG?
Dreams from thieves, ake
Al the board members are from Lomwe, who are thiefs of the DPP what do you expect??? Nonsense
Very good ideas Mr President but as a country we have to be innovative because with the low water levels this problem is bound to be irreversible. What i would like to propose to improve the situation is to de-link all the small districts from the national grid and construct solar facilities in respective districts to supply power in those districts and use the national grid in major cities and all industrial sites. Otherwise, I see no any change in the near future and this applies also to water availability.
People are proposing solutions but this government is so slow to act. it aint listen and we are losing as a country. All we hear are buffoonery sentiments and stories that are never fulfilled. Last time mr Bright Nsaka came and presented the action plan on how the government would combat the electricity woos but nothing is being done. This is panthetic.
Last SONA mr president u assured Malawians that come this time around blackouts will b history?
Now we hear escom chair had misplaced the money meant for gen sets
We know u cant do anything coz he is a homeboy
Malawi ……..
APM has been President for more than 3 years now, but the problem keeps getting worse not better. In the past we have not experienced the 15 hour blackouts which we are experiencing this year. This is what happens when glory and self enrichment are the primary goals of the President and his ruling party. You just have to see the mansions built by ESCOM board members to get an idea of the billions being siphoned out of ESCOM through rampant misprocurement.
Low water levels are just part of the problem: The problem would not have been this bad if ESCOM had been allowed to procure proper equipment to replace its aged machines…
The true extent of the wanton stealing at ESCOM will only come to light in 2019.
Where are the energy generators you promised last year?
Too late agogo inu…anthu aliralira kutopa. This is a sleep walking government. And what I have read are all long-term solutions. DPP kutha uku
This President is very pathetic. He is saying that he knows that without electricity, investors cannot come to Malawi to invest. So, why do you spend Malawians money every year attending to UNGA in the name of attracting investors when you very well know that it is impossible? The millions you have spent on these trips could have been used locally by Escom so that they start producing energy and once its done then you start you investor attracting Job.
Mutharika atleat knows that we are in blackout unlike his minister dausi whom openly said there isn’t blackout on hot current!
They will make him fall