The engagements with traditional leaders
* The drive is engaging over 100 Traditional Authorities and more than 2,000 Group Village Heads to help protect Malawi’s power infrastructure
* Communities warned to stay away from fallen lines, avoid touching damaged poles, and always use MERA-certified electricians to prevent fires and electrocutions
* Calls on all Malawians to work together with ESCOM to protect the grid, promote safety, and ensure continued development as vandalism is costing the corporation over K3 billion each year
By Duncan Mlanjira
Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (ESCOM) Limited has launched a two-month campaign across the Southern Region aimed at curbing vandalism, promoting electricity safety, and addressing rising cases of wayleave encroachment.
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A statement from ESCOM’s public relations and communication department indicates that the campaign is engaging over 100 Traditional Authorities (TAs) and more than 2,000 Group Village Heads to help protect Malawi’s power infrastructure.
During an engagement in Phalombe, Outreach Officer Cosmas Kaunga stressed that vandalism continues to drain resources needed to expand electricity access as the replacement of the vandalised infrastructure is costing ESCOM over K3 billion each year.
Kaunga thus urged chiefs to help safeguard transformers, conductors, and poles, while amplifying ESCOM’s call on all Malawians to work together to protect the grid, promote safety, and ensure continued development.
Safety messages are also central to the campaign as ESCOM officers are warning communities members to stay away from fallen lines and to avoid touching damaged poles.
The citizenry is also asked to always use Malawi Energy Regulatory Authority (MERA)-certified electricians when dealing with household electrical faults, installations, repairs, among others to prevent fires and electrocutions.
The team further highlighted the dangers of wayleave encroachment, urging people to avoid building or farming under power lines and to always seek ESCOM’s guidance before acquiring land near electricity infrastructure.
The traditional leaders also shared success stories, including one community that halted vandalism by forming a security committee and hiring guards.
As vandalism kept stretching ESCOM’s operations, the government amended the Electricity Act of 2024 that reviewed and enacted stiffer judicial punishment for offenders to mitigate the rampant theft of the Corporation’s infrastructure.
ESCOM always reminds the public that vandalism of power infrastructure is not only illegal but also sabotages national development efforts and directly affects health service delivery, delays connections, and increases operational costs, which in turn impact all Malawians.
ESCOM has gone further by partnering with Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) Malawi Chapter by initiating a new media award category for the annual World Press Freedom Day celebration gala aimed at combating electricity infrastructure vandalism and raising public awareness of its impact on national development.
The ESCOM Anti-Vandalism Award is set to honour journalists and media houses whose stories highlight the dangers of infrastructure damage, with winners selected across print, electronic, and online media categories.
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A report by Malawi News Agency (MANA) on October 16 indicated that each winner will receive a whopping K1 million cash prize — “a powerful statement of ESCOM’s commitment to fighting infrastructure vandalism, which threatens Malawi’s economy and essential services”, as said by ESCOM’s chief public relations & communications officer, Pilirani Phiri.
On his part, MISA Malawi chairperson, Golden Matonga said the initiative underscores the media’s role in promoting accountability and educating the public.
The award is open to journalists and media houses who submit stories published or broadcast between November 1, 2025, and April 30, 2026, whose winners will be announced at the annual MISA Malawi Media Awards in May 2026.
This reenforces collaboration between media and key stakeholders such as ESCOM to safeguard public utilities and national growth.
One area of concern that amplifies vandalism of ESCOM’s infrastructure is the rise in scrap metal businesses across the country, whose traders buy copper wire and steel components without verifying whether legit or stolen materials.
In May 2023, at the peak of vandalism of public infrastructure such as ESCOM, waterboards, telecommunication and the railway, the Ministry of Trade & Industry — in collaboration with the Ministry of Homeland Security — suspended the exportation of scrap metal while reviewing its processes.
The Ministry of Trade indicated that the initiative was done under the Control of Goods (Import and Export Licence) Regulations, 2020 to be initiated for 6 months in order to sanitise the scrap metal trade.
The issuance of export licenses for scrap metals was stopped for that period and revoked all licences which were issued before the notice while the two Ministries of Trade and Homeland Security reviewed the Second-hand and Scrap Metal Dealers Act of 1971 and develop regulations accompanying it.
They also were expected to conduct fresh registration of all second-hand and scrap metal dealers and to formulate rules and standard operating procedures for scrap metal business in the country.—Reporting for MANA by Patience Longwe
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