Blackouts cost firm over K4 million

Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (Escom) blackouts over the past two weeks have forced Dimakis Chickens 2013 to incur a loss of over K4 million (US$10,000) after throwing away about four tonnes of rotten chickens.

According to the company’s human resources manager, Henry Chirwa, there have been persistent power fluctuations over the past few weeks which resulted in chickens and chicken parts in their cold rooms going bad.

Chirwa denied allegations that the company was distributing the rotten chickens in William Village, Traditional Authority (T/A) Bvumbwe, in Thyolo, saying somebody from that area had asked to bury them in his garden for manure purposes.

On Thursday, a villager alleged that on Monday and Tuesday, the company distributed the chickens which were half-rotten.

“It is true that people from Dimakis came with chickens which were distributed. They did not go through the village head, but they were just giving to anybody who wanted them. Some of the chickens were in good condition while others had already started showing signs of decomposition,” he said.

However, Chirwa said it was wrong to insinuate that the company was distributing rotten chickens to villagers, saying even if there was just fear that the chickens may go bad because of lack of power, the priority could have been members of staff and surrounding villagers.

He added: “We have our own site where we destroy anything that has gone bad. But in this case, we were asked to bury in the village by the owner of the garden. What happened at night after we had buried the chickens is beyond our control.”

Chirwa said the blackouts were  also putting pressure on the company as running a stand-by generator was costly. He said the company spends at least K1.2 million (US$3000) per month on generator set because of the frequent power failures.

Escom’s public relations manager Kitty Chingota said last week she had failed to establish if any officer received a complaint from Dimakis Chickens 2013.