By Monica Tambala

Lilongwe, August 26, MANA: Minister of Energy Ibrahim Matola has called on politicians in the country to refrain from interfering in the affairs of the Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (ESCOM) and Electricity Generation Company Malawi Limited (EGENCO).

Speaking at a press briefing dubbed Malawians Deserve to Know, the Minister of energy Ibrahim Matola has asked politicians to let the energy sector remain independent saying energy is the driver of the economy.

He added there is no meaningful development in the country without energy.

“Fellow politicians, leave the energy sector alone to do its job efficiently. Do not procure equipment they do not need such as the envelops procured for the next 25 years which has nothing to do with ESCOM, stop interfering in government companies,

The energy sector should be vibrant; we cannot talk about water utilities without energy as they need power to pump water, we cannot talk about education without power. As I am talking there are men and women and even infants in hospital on life supporting machines,” he said.

He further highlighted that Malawi is in this current situation due to the foundations that were poorly laid by the previous administration.

“Energy is the most important sector in any government and needs a lot of investment. The utility companies were a paradise to politicians forcing them to misprocure and by pass the laws invested in these government companies,” Matola said.

Principal Secretary (PS) for the energy sector, Alfonso Chikuni stressed on the importance of institutional strengthening as a factor leading to the rise and fall of nations.

“Countries do not rise and fall because of the culture or chance, they fall or rise because of the institutions that are in place. Institutions should be left to perform with all the professionalism that they have,” he said.

He also emphasized on having a policy enabling environment such that the ministry is open to the idea of reevaluating policies of the unbundling of ESCOM that birthed EGENCO and Power Market Limited (PML).

Minister of Information and Digitization, Gospel Kazako enlightened on the importance of having power as a nation which is required in the development of the country.

Kazako also condemned the misuse of resources in the energy sector which has left many Malawians struggling.

“There are many stories we will launch investigations into, there are stories where individuals used to receive money as lectures when they were in fact party supporters. Others would go to ESCOM and take orders of equipment’s without delivering,” he said.

He further explained that the president of Malawi, Lazarus Chakwera is very serious to fix all broken systems in the country.

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