Trio fined for charcoal trafficking
The Blantyre Principal Resident Magistrate’s Court has convicted and fined three people on their own pleas of guilty for being found in possession of 207 bags of charcoal without permit.
South West Police Region prosecutions officer Superintendent Damiano Kaputa told the court that the trio was intercepted by a police team led by Commissioner Noel Kayira on June 30 2024 at Kameza Roundabout in Blantyre.
He said the police impounded a Scania truck registration CP 10467 that ferried the charcoal.
In court, the three, identified as Samuel Ngwangwa, 49, Merema Chimtanda, 32, and Mary Thuboyi, 36, pleaded guilty.
Principal resident magistrate Lawrence Mchilima on Friday ordered the driver, Ngwangwa to pay a K600 000 fine for trafficking charcoal and being found in possession of forest produce without permit.
On the other hand, Chimtanda and Thuboyi were fined K200 000 each or in default to serve two years imprisonment for being found with forest produce without permit.
All the three have since paid the fines.
Mchilima also ordered that the charcoal be forfeited to the Malawi Government and that the vehicle be returned to the productive citizen.
She said: “I dropped out of school in Form Two after gettingpregnant. I thought I would part ways with poverty by getting married. However, I suffered in marriage, my husband was abusive.
“Fortunately, the mother group came to my rescue and I went back to school and was selected to go to college. I am now a qualified teacher. I am called madam because of our senior chief.”
Montfort urged girls to stay in school so that they should become productive citizens. n
owner, but warned that should the vehicle be found trafficking forest produce without permit again, it shall be forfeited to the government.
Meanwhile, environmental activist Mathews Malata has applauded the improvement in court rulings and increased convictions for such offences. However, he called for stiffer penalties.
He said: “The conviction is a step in the right direction but the fines imposed could be more in comparison with the estimated value of the confiscated charcoal which in this case is pegged at over K5 million.”
The Forestry Act imposes a maximum fine of K10 million and 20 years imprisonment for trafficking in charcoal or firewood without permit.
Despite the fines, people continue traffi cking the products and in August 2022, about 500 people were arrested for violating the new law while 26 vehicles were impounded and forfeited to the government.
At least 80 percent of Malawians use illegally sourced charcoal and firewood as primary sources of energy as alternatives such as licensed charcoal, briquettes, sustainable charcoal pellets, liquefied petroleum gas and electricity remain way beyond the affordability of the majority.
