Liwonde scrap metal dealers anti-vandalism campaign to encourage people to register their businesses to deter vandalism

Most affected government institution on vandalism is ESCOM

* Vandalism of government infrastructure, like bridges and road signs, derails the country’s development efforts

* It has been rampant in the country as many scrap metal dealers venture into the business without being registered

By Martin Chiwanda & Hopecein Makhaza, MANA

Second Hand and Scrap Metal Dealers Association of Malawi — having observed that unregistered dealers are contributing towards increasing vandalism of government property — has partnered with the Malawi Police Service in anti-vandalism campaign.

In sensitising the public, the campaign seeks to sensitise players to register their businesses with a purpose of ending the malpractice, saying the increase of vandalism of government property is negatively affecting the country’s development progress.

At the launch of a campaign in Liwonde on Thursday, the association’s chairperson, Patrick Jonathan said vandalism of government infrastructure, like bridges and road signs, derails the country’s development efforts.

He said vandalism has been rampant in the country as many scrap metal dealers venture into the business without being registered by the government.

“Some people do not understand that vandalism of government property derails progress in development,” he said. “Vandalism of property like road signs and bridges is on the increase because of non-registered delears. What is needed now is for the government to register the people who want to be scrap metal dealers.”

Machinga District Commissioner, Lucia Chidalengwa said it is everyone’s responsibility to protect government infrastructure and not only wait for security officers to take the leading role.

Chidalengwa added that following the launch of the initiative, the district will take advantage of any gathering to convey anti-vandalism messages.

“Since governance structures start from the area development committees, we will take advantage of village development committees to sensitise the public that if they see anyone buying or selling illegal metals, or ESCOM wires, they need to be alert and report the matter to the community policing structures,” she said.

Deputy Commissioner of Police responsible for the Eastern Region, Kelvin Mulezo said the launch will help to end cases of vandalism in the region considering that the malpractice has impacted negatively on national development.

Most affected government institution on vandalism is Electricity Supply Corporation (ESCOM) and last month — following the arrest of a 26-year-old Nevas Chimphanje for allegedly vandalising overhead power transmission line in Dzalanyama Forest in Lilongwe worth K9.8 million — the public attributed the rampant vandalism of government infrastructure is due to unlicensed scrap metal dealers.

Soon after the incident, ESCOM management issued a statement that this is not the first time for the portion of the 11kV Bunda overhead line to be vandalized in Dzalanyama Forest, saying the first case on the same line occurred in May 2022 when the vandals stole 3.1km portion of the line worth K36 million.

The saboteur was caught had cut down eight wooden poles, stole six spans of aluminum conductor and line accessories while some 50 metres of aluminum conductor was recovered from the scene of the incident.

Thus the public took to social media to condemn the mushrooming of scrap metal dealers as one of the reasons for the increase in vandalism of ESCOM’s  property.

Writing on Malawi Police Service Facebook page Eremia Phiri suggested that the arrested suspect should be pinned down to disclose where they sell the cables.

“It would definitely scrap metal dealers,” he had said. “There has to be some means to regulate and register these scrap metal dealers because they are all over — even in residential areas.”

Al Shaun Antonio attributed the development as due to ESCOM’s strategy which allows customers to purchase their own materials for electricity connections, saying in the past, “you would not easily find these connection wires because it was only found with ESCOM”.

“But after they allowed everyone to purchase their own materials when they need — they gave these thieves businesses. Where would they have sold the wires if it was back in the day?”

Another commentator Aubrey Kabenu agreed to this, saying once ESCOM liberalised the buying and selling of these wires which was then, done solely by them, is a contributing factor, saying: “We understand it was done to relieve the pressure that was there due to high demand of electricity connections but it was a great mistake.

“Now it will be tough to trace who is doing clean business of the items and perpetrators, I wish it was reversed. It is now close to five months since a similar case happened in our area and we are required to buy the wires for them to fix the problem.”

Among other comments, many of the people implored on the Malawi Police Service to plead for a stiff punishments in court to deter would-be offenders.

ESCOM keeps issuing strong condemnation of this unpatriotic behaviour as it is hampering its efforts to increase the electricity access rate by reaching out to the remotest areas.

Last year, as the country kept experiencing power load shedding due to many factors that included loss of 130 megawatts at Kapichira Hydro Power Station due to Cyclone Ana, ESCOM said they were losing an average of five transformers a month which cost around K4 million to replace.

In December last year, Ndirande Police arrested two people after they were intercepted in possession of 300m of ESCOM power lines wires valued at K900,000, which are suspected to have been vandalized in Lirangwe.—Additional reporting by Duncan Mlanjira, Maravi Express