OG Matches dupes Malawians with ‘Moto kuti buu’ promo, CAMA says ‘serious crime’
Malawi’s OG Matches could get into legal trouble for duping Malawians with a competition in which grand winner was to drive away a Nissan 1 tonner.
Between November and December 2013 OG Matches flew adverts for its Moto Kuti Buu competition in The Nation newspaper and on MBC Radio 2 FM every Tuesdays with Frank Kandu as host.
The grand draw was to be on December 16, 2014 but three months later there is graveyard silence from the organisers.
One of the participants, Juma Basikolo, 23, of Malawi’s capital Lilongwe said he was “bitter with the conduct of the organizers.”
Other prizes that were expected to be dished away included 300 bicycles and 100 cellphones.
Apparently, Nyasa Times sourced, OG Matches did not conduct the draw on the scheduled date because they were “still unsure of the prices for bicycles and cellphones.”
For the reason, they postponed the grand draw to December 31, 2014.
“When 31 [December] came there was still nothing. They gave the same reasons and pushed the grand draw to a later date: 18th January 2015,” explained Basikolo, “but there too nothing happened.”
The circumstances triggered participants to start wondering whether the Malawi National Lottery Board (MNLB) was aware of the competition.
According to (MNLB) rules and regulations the rules and regulation “if, after an Entry has become a Valid Entry, the Facilities fail, or are damaged or destroyed or if the Official Record is damaged or destroyed, or there is no Complete Draw at the conclusion of any given draw due to personal, electrical or mechanical failure or for whatever reasons, the Operator’s liability (if any) to Participants is to refund the Investment regardless of how the failure, damage or destruction was caused.”
But according to Nyasa Times investigations, no one has won either a bike or a cellphone from the yearlong promotion.
Consumers Association of Malawi (CAMA) executive director John Kapito said OG Matches committed a serious offence.
“They [OG Matches] are supposed to honour their commitments,” he said, “and if they don’t they are liable to legal implication.”
Kapito encouraged the participants to take up the issue with the Malawi National Lottery Board.
The rules of MNLB are governed by the laws of the Republic of Malawi, and each participant shall submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts in the Republic of Malawi.
Malawians, most of who survive on less than a dollar a day, have a history of participating in various lotteries.
Just last month, estate owner Harry Assima won the latest model of Nissan Qashqai for emerging winner in the Africa Cup of Nations Goal of the Tournament Competition. He correctly voted for Ghana’s Christian Atsu’s goal as Goal of the Tournament beating 16 000 other entrants
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