Cut the Chaff

The mess that is Escom

Apart from electricity being more expensive and that Escom is now more efficient at disconnecting non-paying and clients who have paid through a technology the body introduced but appears to have no competences to manage it, what else has changed?

That Escom has miserably failed to meet the country’s energy needs is a no brainer. Supply disruptions are part of our lives.

That power interruptions are increasingly specialising in coming when firms and households are carrying out processes that typically require energy as an input is no rocket science. People have died on the operating table in hospital theatres.

In fact, if a day passes without blackouts, the question Edward Chitsulo’s Raw Stuffers ask is: Kodi wozimitsa magetsi wadwala?

I know it is not all Escom’s fault. The legal and regulatory framework is as lousy as the service provider it established.

For too long, the country’s energy operating architecture shut out investors that would have offered better value for money than the raw deal from the parastatal.

Government insists that whoever wants to produce electricity in Malawi should sell it to the underperforming parastatal at prices below production costs.

No investor would accept such a cock and bull story. Thus, despite having so many perennial rivers, independent power producers have stayed away, leaving us at the mediocre Escom’s mercy.

The results are staggering.

Official studies show that 90 percent of Malawi’s population use wood for fuel. Charcoal production alone accounts for 88.5 percent our energy needs, with 6.4 percent from petroleum, 2.8 percent from electricity and 2.4 percent from coal.

By the time someone shakes Escom from its snoring bliss, Malawi could be a desert after rapid deforestation wipes out forest cover.

With Malawi’s population growth rate at 3.2 percent—one of the highest globally thanks to our fertile productive systems—more pressure will pile on trees.

Already, most hills and mountains nationwide are bald. Human beings are now settling right on top of hills with only their destructive behaviour for company.

While up there, they do everything in their power to cause soil erosion, ignite floods and, as the deluge rages down, transfer siltation to our water bodies—choking off the potential sources of new power—if Escom can get round to developing them, that is.

The motorists funded Malawi Rural Electrification Programme (Marep) is a sick joke that can only amuse powerful politicians who smugly use it as a campaign tool.

The Malawi Energy Regulatory Authority (Mera) snores through its mandate most of the time, only stirring when it is time to review fuel prices before returning to its dreamless sleep—dreamless because not even in its slumber can the authority summon any powers of imagination.

You would think this is a depressing enough situation but when is Escom involved, the drama keeps unfolding as told through a Lilongwe-based friend’s agony.

This workmate pays his electricity bill through National Bank of Malawi’s innovative mo626 and online banking, believing—poor guy, so naive—that the bank and Escom have working linkages that should immediately update the transaction.

 

Fat chance

Last month, my colleague just saw Escom ‘boys and girls’ coming to disconnect power at his home.

When he showed them proof that he had settled his bills electronically, they showed no sign of comprehension.

They suggested that he goes to their office to explain his bill payment sophistry. Meanwhile, they would do the job they know best—cut power.

At Escom offices, the front desk officer was no help at all. Her ‘brilliant’ proposal was that he pays cash and then after reconciliation, the other money would be brought forward as if they were told he has a silo of dormant cash.

Escom was basically asking him to pay thrice—the initial electronic transaction, the cash and the inconvenience—for one service.

By telling him that the surplus would be carried forward, Escom was also asking him to lend it money, which is ridiculous because my friend is not a bank.

Thus, by implication, Escom was also asking him to pay for their financial management inefficiencies as well, making it the fourth price for one miserable service.

If that is not white collar robbery, then someone should help me with a definition.

My friend, for the sake of his cartoon-loving boys, paid another K26 000 at around 1pm. He was promised that power would be restored by 3pm the same day.

But by 7pm, there was no reconnection. My friend had to call Escom’s chief executive officer to complain and, within one hour, power was restored.

The question is: How many people have the mobile phone number of the Escom boss? What about those who can’t even trace who to call?

That is the mess that is Escom.

Related Articles

Check Also
Close
Back to top button