OPINION | Mbeta’s Legal Strike Reopens PML, Exposes Power Struggle at ESCOM and Revives Malawi’s Stalled Energy Reforms

There is something quietly revolutionary happening inside Malawi’s legal corridors—and most people are not paying attention.

At the centre of it is Frank Mbeta, a man who, in just a few months, is beginning to redraw the boundaries of what it means to be Attorney General in this country. Not with noise. Not with theatrics. But with sharp legal precision, bold decisions, and an unmistakable sense of purpose.

Let’s be clear: this is not routine performance. This is disruption.

In less than half a year, Mbeta has taken on complex, high-stakes matters and delivered results where hesitation once defined the office. One case stands out—not because it made headlines, but because it should have.

The reversal of the voluntary winding up of Power Market Limited (PML).

On the surface, it sounds technical. It is not. It is fundamental to Malawi’s economic future.

When the High Court ordered the termination of PML’s winding up—following an application by Mbeta through the Director of Insolvency under the Insolvency Act of 2016—it did more than revive a company. It reopened a pathway to fixing one of Malawi’s most broken systems: electricity.

And here is where the silence becomes dangerous.

Very few media houses picked up this story. Yet this single decision strikes at the heart of the country’s long-stalled energy reforms. The unbundling of Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi was never meant to be cosmetic. It was supposed to separate power generation, transmission, and purchasing functions to improve efficiency, transparency, and investment.

PML was created to handle the “Single Buyer” role—an internationally recognized model designed to bring order, discipline, and confidence into energy markets. Instead, it was suffocated before it could breathe.

Why?

Because reform threatens control.

For years, ESCOM has clung to functions it was meant to relinquish. The resistance has been persistent, calculated, and ultimately successful—culminating in a Cabinet decision under President Lazarus Chakwera to dissolve PML altogether.

Let’s not dress it up. That decision was deeply questionable.

Around the world, the Single Buyer model is not an experiment—it is standard practice. Countries like Malaysia have used it to unlock rapid growth in their power sectors. The logic is simple and proven: separate roles, reduce conflicts of interest, increase transparency, and attract private investment.

A Single Buyer ensures electricity is procured at the lowest cost, safeguards supply, monitors fuel adequacy, and—critically—builds investor confidence. It creates a system where efficiency is rewarded, not manipulated.

Without it, you invite opacity. You invite inefficiency. You invite abuse.

And that is the uncomfortable truth Malawi must confront.

The push to eliminate PML was never convincingly justified. It smelled of something else—fear of losing control over revenue streams, reluctance to embrace transparency, and a deep-rooted resistance to reform. This is about money. Big money. The kind that flows through electricity sales—money that, if unchecked, can easily slip into the same patterns of misuse that reforms were meant to end.

We have seen this before.

Even after partial reforms, ESCOM began posting profits reportedly reaching K16 billion. That should have been a signal to deepen reforms—not reverse them.

This is why Mbeta’s intervention matters.

By stepping in, he did not just argue a legal point. He challenged a trajectory. He forced a pause on a decision that risked dragging Malawi backwards. He reminded the system that laws are not suggestions—and that reform frameworks are not optional.

That takes courage. And it takes clarity.

But let’s not rush to crown anyone just yet.

Greatness is not declared in months—it is proven over time, under pressure, and against resistance. What Mbeta has shown is promise—serious, undeniable promise. The kind Malawi has been starved of in critical public offices.

If he sustains this trajectory—if he continues to choose law over convenience, reform over comfort, and national interest over institutional inertia—then yes, history may well remember him among the finest to ever hold that office.

For now, one thing is certain:

Malawi has been handed a rare opportunity.

Power Market Limited is back. The door to genuine energy reform has been reopened. The question is no longer whether the system can change—it is whether those in power are willing to let it.

Because in the end, this is bigger than Frank Mbeta.

It is about whether Malawi is finally ready to choose transparency over control, reform over resistance, and progress over comfort.

And that choice cannot be postponed forever.

Follow and Subscribe Nyasa TV :