We know Escom’s real social responsibility

For President Joyce Banda, who has consistently claimed that she has the best interests of Malawians at heart, the Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (Escom)—known for being slovenly inefficient and cash-strapped, leading to constant blackouts and high bills for consumers—cannot be a source of a K35 million hand-out to her political campaign wrapped in the cotton wool of Safe Motherhood project at Ntcheu District Hospital.

Those who are paid to do propaganda on behalf of the President at State House and Escom itself can shout themselves hoarse on the mountain high and claim that despite Escom’s financial dire straits, it should engage in this obscene extravagance, tagging it as social responsibility, but it will not wash on Malawians.

This is merely because Malawians know what Escom’s real social responsibility is and it is certainly not to take over the role of the Ministry of Health or fund the PP’s campaign under the ruse of Safe Motherhood Project but to provide uninterrupted supply of electricity to both existing consumers already on the grid and any prospective ones.

Sadly, and on evidence of what obtains on the ground, Escom is a spectacular failure in this service provision to Malawians. Instead, those on the grid must endure days on end without power through constant blackouts and prospective customers must either know someone high at Escom or bribe some operatives altogether to get connected.

And then, there are Malawians, mostly living in the rural areas, who Escom has condemned ad infinitum to the dark ages with no chance that they will one day see light, literally, because it cannot engage in any meaningful rural electrification programme.

Safe motherhood aside, the quality of life of a rural woman, who the President claims to care for so much, can also improve tremendously just with the availability of that electric pole delivering power.

Imagine, in this day and age, rural women are still pounding maize for flour manually using a mtondo and a musi, things that the urban dweller has consigned to memory, all because of electricity.

The corporation constantly harps on its poor financial position as being responsible for this horrendous state of affairs yet the K35 million it paid to the President’s campaign now makes mockery of it all. It is simply not justifiable and it does not make sense, financially or otherwise.

But dear me! Since when have decisions of parastatals made sense in Malawi, a country where political patronage in State appointments is so entrenched that the appointees’ first allegiance is not to the people of Malawi but their political puppet masters?

The thing is, bosses at Escom and, other parastatals for that matter, care much for their bellies and to keep their plate full on the gravy train jolly-ride that is government. What a better way of doing this than donating scant resources of Escom to the President’s pet project of safe motherhood, a convenient campaign tool, to ensure themselves a place at the table come post-election period in 2014 in the event that she wins.

As for the President herself, she is by nature and orientation not a reformer. Shenanigans and prankishness like these, where those entrusted with looking after public interests, prioritise their own bellies have been the hallmark of Malawi politics for many years and the question has always been: What wrong have we, Malawians, done to deserve such toxic leadership and when shall it all end?

Maybe times like these offer us a chance to reflect on these matters. But we all know what Escom’s real social responsibility is.