Matola inspects a vandalised power line in Lilongwe in March 2023
* Parliament has passed the bill which now awaits the President to ascent to it. I hope the President will ascent to it.
* We cannot go on like this. We need stiffer punishment for the vandals
Maravi Express
Minister of Energy Ibrahim Matola says he hopes the passing of a Bill in Parliament to amend the Electricity Act would help step up the fight against vandalism of Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (ESCOM) Limited assets.
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A statement from ESCOM’s senior public relations officer, Peter Kanjere says the Minister graced an anti-vandalism campaign for ESCOM at Mangochi Stadium, where he said the bill, which Parliament passed last week, paves the way for stiffer punishments for convicts of vandalism.
“Parliament has passed the bill which now awaits the President to ascent to it,” Matola is quoted as saying. “I hope the President will ascent to it. We cannot go on like this. We need stiffer punishment for the vandals.”
The Minister described vandalism of ESCOM assets such as transformers, oil, conductors, stay wires, and poles as tantamount to economic sabotage, saying the vice undermines the government’s efforts to ensure that the manufacturing industry has access to enough electricity to aid production.
On her part, ESCOM chief publicist, Kitty Chingota concurred with the Minister, saying the amendment of the Act would complement the power utility company’s efforts to curb vandalism.
According to the statement, Section 45 (1) of the amended Act reads: ‘A person who carries on in any manner an activity for the supply of electricity in contravention of this Act, or fails to carry out any order or decision of the Authority or a licensee made or given under this Act, commits an offence and is, upon conviction, liable to a fine of K100,000,000 and imprisonment for twenty years’.
Section 45 (2a and 2b) adds that any person ‘who connects electricity to premises without written authorization of the licensee or disturbs or tampers with any electricity meter or other measuring instrument or apparatus commits an offence and is, upon conviction, liable to a fine of K100,000,000 and imprisonment for ten years’.
Section 45 (4) provides a non-fineable penalty of 30 years for vandalism and possession of equipment stolen from a licensee, the section reads:
(a) if found in possession of equipment stolen from a licensee; or
(b) damages, destroys, or vandalizes any electricity installation equipment or apparatus, commits an offence and is, upon conviction, liable to imprisonment for 30 years.
Vandals masquerading as ESCOM employees
Section 45 (5) provides enhanced penalty of MK150,000,000 and 25 years imprisonment if a licensee’s employee or former employee is involved in the illegal connection or meter tamper.
The Section states: ‘Without prejudice to the right of a licensee to recover for illegal consumption of electricity, including costs associated with such recovery, a person, being an employee or former employee of a licensee, who:
(a) connects or assists a person to connect, electricity without authorization of the licensee; or
(b) disturbs or tampers or assists a person to disturb or to tamper, with an electricity meter or any other measuring instrument or apparatus, commits an offence and is, upon conviction, liable to a fine of K150,000,000 and to imprisonment for twenty-five years.”
On Friday, ESCOM’s Chief Operations Officer, Maxwell Mulimakwenda disclosed that from December last year to March this year, the company has lost electricity equipment worth K14 million in Chitipa alone — and he also called for need to speed up with regulating the scrap metal industry which is the contributing factor.
He said this during a stakeholders’ meeting where ESCOM was explaining reasons behind the frequent blackouts in the district, saying rampant vandalism of electricity supply equipment are some of the major causes of frequent power outages.
Cases of vandalism of ESCOM equipment is on the rampant and just in November, two towers on Kapichira to Nchalo 132kv overhead line at Kasinthula in Chikwawa District were brought down — heavily earlier compromising health service delivery in Lower Shire and putting lives at risk and bringing businesses to a halt.
The ESCOM towers feeds Nsanje and Chikwawa, and as they fell down, so did service delivery for health centres, fresh food grocery shops, welding centres, butcheries, hair salons and barbershops, among other businesses in Nsanje and Chikwawa.
Thus ESCOM losing millions of its revenue in repairing and replacing stolen equipment prompting the company to conducting anti-vandalism sensitization campaigns in the last two years, but the vice still persists largely due to unscrupulous scrap metal dealers who buy such vandalized ESCOM assets.
Last year, ESCOM produced a report on the prevalence of vandalism cases in the Southern Region, indicating that MV conductors were the most targeted by vandals — with Thyolo, Blantyre, Zomba and Mulanje registered the most cases of vandalism.
The report showed that 41,355 MV conductor were vandalized in the region followed by HV conductor (12,875), 10,124 earth mat, 1,708 MV cable, 1,165 twin wire, 905 LV stay, 438 HV stay, 195 HV cable, 77 transformers, MV fuse units (57) and HV metering unit (four).
Thyolo topped the list of the districts in the region hit the hardest by vandalism after registering 34 transformer cases, followed by those of 5,500 MV conductor, 1,303 earth mats, 480 MV cable and 100 HV conductor. Some 20 HV cables were vandalized in Chikwawa during this period.
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