Police on 24-hour guard at Mota-Engil

Mota-Engil’s Mkwinda Campsite in Neno is on a 24-hour police guard to curb a huge diesel black market arising from the fuel theft at the over $1 billion new railway project.

The company’s contractual matters manager Noel Phumisa told journalists on Saturday that theft of diesel was the biggest challenge at the camp with ME losing 10 000 litres daily.

He said the company has since terminated the services of an undisclosed private security company in preference for the police because of the huge losses the company was registering.

“We use 100 000 litres of fuel a day with over 10 percent being stolen every day. We used to deal with Mwanza Police, but have now engaged the Southern Region Police to enhance security.

“These are on guard and patrol full time with police officers exchanging shifts from all over the Southern Region. We have noted some improvement, but we are yet to assess and quantify the indicators,” said Phumisa.

He said Mota-Engil’s diesel is colour coded blue for security making it easy to identify when stolen. He further said a recent media campaign led to the recovery of some stolen diesel, although, he admitted it did not curb the malpractice.

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investigations showed that a 25-litre jerrycan filled with diesel costs K10 000 (about $25).

One top manager at Mota-Engil told Nation on Sunday last week that the recent strikes by local workers were really emanating from the loss of a lucrative diesel business following the apprehension of some.

He is on record to have said most people fired were caught with the commodity, but felt the job loss meant the loss of their established market.

But the workers said they went on strike to protest over the hiring of unskilled Thais whom they claimed were replacing Malawians.

They were also demanding salary increments.