Government should relinquish full control of energy sector

 We are still here in Mulanje, Lhomweland and still enjoying the unqualified service of the servant-sisters of Hafu-wani hotel, inn, motel, lodge, or resthouse. We have vowed to still be here until we witness the Mulhakho wa Lhomwe cultural festival in October at Chonde.

The last time we attended the Lhomwe cultural activity, we got bags and bags of that human-productivity root this area is famous for. We expect to get even more this year, process it to powder, and export some bottles to our brothers in Russia, Ukraine, Japan, USA, and Marambo.

Meanwhile, we have had to leave for Manolo Village, in UTonga, to mourn Fumbani Ching’oli Chirwa, son to Malawi Congress Party founding president, Edgar Orton Ching’oli Chirwa.

Fumbani became a sudden ‘celebrity’ when, in the early 1980s, he was abducted and charged with treason along with his celebrity parents, Edgar Orton and Vera Chirwa. The open air trial of the three proved why the traditional court system had to go and get buried in a concrete vault never to resurrect.

At the trial, traditional chiefs, half of them asleep, made a mockery of justice repeating what they had been coached to say.

Elsewhere, the trial of Orton Chirwa would have been turned into a novel or film. Elsewhere; not here. Elsewhere; not here, Fumbani would have died rich. Elsewhere; not here, Fumbani’s story would have been part of the history of Malawi.

You may recall that, one day last week, while still here at Hafu-wani we discussed over dinner and a bottle of fantakoko, what Joyce Banda, the president of Malawi who succeeded our beloved (ka)Ngwazi Bingu wa Mutharika, did to rectify the fuel and electricity problems that had bedeviled Malawi during (ka) Ngwazi’s time and 10 wasted years before that.

We observed that Joyce Banda had decided not to rely too much on institutions like the Malawi Energy Regulatory Authority (Mera). She only consulted them as a matter of fulfilling the demands of democracy and constitutionalism. Mostly she directed what should be done and her directives worked. Leadership that consults too much rarely gets things done. Leaders must be like parents who clearly know the difference between their responsibilities towards their children and limits of their children’s rights and privileges.

Those who are old enough will recall that since the Malawi government created funny institutions like Mera fuel prices have soared without justification and supply has been erratic at times. Before the Meras of this country were given power to reap where they do not invest, fuel importers and retailers were free to sell fuel at prices they determined were profitable enough for them and affordable enough for their clients. Petroda, the same company called Oilcom in East Africa, would charge lower and we Malawians would choose to queue there but the government jumped in to force everyone to sell fuel at the same price. Why should that be the case in a liberal economy?

The Malawi government is now a regulator of the energy sector, through MERA, an importer, through NOCMA, a producer through EGENCO, and a Distributor, through ESCOM. If the real private sector was involved in the energy sector, some of the problems we witness in this small country would not be there.