There is no backup power at Griffin Saenda Indoor Sports Complex in Lilongwe where some Africa Netball Cup matches are being played in the evening even in the midst of persistent power failures due to heavy and incessant rainfall, Weekend Nation has established.
This came to light on Thursday evening when a Pool C match between South Africa and Botswana was stopped for almost a quarter of an hour due to power failure.
Owners of the facility, Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture, yesterday confirmed that currently there is no power back up at the facility.
In an interview yesterday, the ministry’s spokesperson Macmillan Mwale said: “In the interim, we do not have power backup as we would need a big genset, but the plans are there to acquire one.
“We had an assurance from the service provider, Escom [Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi], that we would not be affected and they even have their technical personnel on the ground.
“That is why when there was power failure during Thursday’s match, we contacted them [Escom], but by the time they came, it had been rectified.”
Mwale said power was off for “only about 15 minutes”.
On what would happen in the event of a serious technical fault, he said: “I can assure Malawians that everything is under control, we are in constant touch with the service provider.”
The continental showpiece’s local organising committee chairperson Limbani Matola, who is also Malawi National Council of Sports director of planning, marketing and infrastructure development, had not responded to our questionnaire at press time yesterday.
In an interview yesterday Escom chief public relations and communications officer Pilirani Phiri attributed the power outage on Thursday evening to a temporary emergency generation fault.
He said: “This led to disturbance on the grid leading to loss of power supply in some parts of Lilongwe, including the match venue, [but] power supply was restored after a few minutes, allowing the match to resume.”
Escom apologised to the affected teams and the public for the brief power interruption.
He said: “We deeply regret that this unforeseen technical issue forced a temporary halt to the highly anticipated match .
“We understand that this caused inconvenience and disruption to the game’s flow and spectator experience.”
The tournament’s semi-finals will be played today with the last match starting at 7pm while the final is set for tomorrow from 6pm.
