13 charcoal burners in Malawi get heavy fines

Aug 31, 2016 Top News 64
Advertisement
Charcoal Malawi

The Machinga second grade magistrate court has handed out heavy fines to 13 people who were arrested for being found with 145 bags of charcoal.

The court ordered the 13 to pay K300,000 fine each after they were found guilty of possessing forest produce which is contrary to section 68 of the Forest Act.

Charcoal Malawi
Charcoal burners fined in Malawi.
(Image credit: espa-assets.org)

When presenting facts, state prosecutor Cliff Kalawa told the court that on 26th and 27th August 2016 the forestry department conducted operations with the aim of apprehending charcoal burners in the district of Machinga.

During the operation, the law enforcers caught the 13 and seized 145 bags of charcoal. Prosecutor Kalawa therefore prayed for stiff punishments to the convicts since they are contributing to unfavourable weather conditions in the country.

During mitigation, some of the charcoal burners pleaded for leniency since they are breadwinners while others said they are orphans.

But Machinga second grade magistrate Maxwell Boazi agreed with the state and ordered the convicts to pay 300,000 kwacha each in order to deter would be offenders.

Advertisement

64 Comments

  1. KU MALAWI SIKUDZATHEKA CHIGAMULOCHI SICHILI BWINO A FOREST AMATI AKALANDA MAKALA AMAKAGULITSANSO KODI MINYANGA YA NJOBVU IJA ANAWOTCHA IJA AMALEKA KUGULITSA BWANJI KUNO KU MALAWI TIMAZUNZANA TOKHATOKHA NDIMAKHULUPIRIRA KUTI KUNOKO NDALAMA ZILIPO KOMA AKUDYA NDI ANTHU OCHEPA UPEZA MUNTHU AKUTI OSADULA MITENGO MWACHISAWAWA MVULA IDZIVUTA KOMA YEMWEYO WAPONYA THUMBA LA MAKALA MGALIMOTO YAKE NDE PAMENEPA OLAKWA NDI NDANI NDIMAKHUMBILA MULUNGU ANAKANGOWERUZA DZIKOLI

  6. Mwamanga ootcha makala kumati azidya chani ?m’malo momanga mbava zomwe zikuba ndalama zimbilimbili m’bomamo sopano inu mukuchinyila ndalama mumatumba mwanu kumadya ndi ana anu amphawife ndiye tizidya chani anthu oipa inu?

  7. Heavy fine should be given to six barbaric ministers who stole our billions of tax money while Peter Nepotism Muthalika was sleeping not those poor Malawians.

  9. TELL THAT JUDGE HE/she is fucken stupid & he don’t deserve to have a brain….some pipo indeed graduate but still stupid. You are busy being against these pipo yet the judge @ his house has a bag of charcoal his wife uses it …fuck it

  10. Amalawi majaji athu ngosaphunzira bwino zaumunthu,everyday no magetsi koma akazi ndi ana awo amakkala pa Escom fasting daily,zaumbuli basi!

  14. Hello my name is john I want to give a testimony about my HIV virus that was cured by a great spell caster. Since last 4years I have being a HIV AID patient. I never think I will live long again and am so grateful to Dr sule who help me cured my HIV AIDS last 3 weeks. I was in a great pain so I told one of my best friends; he told me that there is a great spell caster that can cure my VIRUS. I asked him if he had his contact, he gave me his contactl, I contacted him he talked to me and he perform the necessary things and sent it to me through corrier delivery company and deliverd to me at my place and he told me that after two weeks I should go for a test. Which I did, when the doctor told me that am now a HIV negative I couldn’t believe myself I went to see another doctor the result was still the same, I was human on planet earth, so I emailed him and thanked him. Please if you are having a similar problem please visit him/contact him via whatsapp +2348162447651

  17. Useless judgement yokhayokhayo tunenayo. How can a selfish judge slap a charcoal seller yet his wife is the most high beneficiary of the same? How can police arrest charcoal- loboyi yet their kitchen can’t operate without charcoal…. How can government enforce such laws yet we experience blackout day long, night long, why is government failing to subsidize gas cookers and gas itself? Why is government failing to drop the price of solar cookers? Why is government failing to create job opportunities in Malawi so as to minimise deforestation. We should not act in a stupid manner. These are poor people and arresting them inflicts the number of prisoners whom you as government fails to feed them as well. Atayeni awa

  22. Tikapita mmanyumba mwanu sitikapeza thumba lamakala?Pali milandu yeniyeni kunjako yoti muzenge lyk achina cashgate ndi anzake osati zopusazi….Mxii!!

  23. Those people destroy our nature even here in dzalanyama forest was cuttd more tree that coz climate chance. Government do something on that with your powerst Army.

  27. MILANDU YA ANTHU OSAUKA IMATHA TSIKU LIMODZI KOMA MILANDU YA NDUNA SEVEN IKUNGOKHALA MPHEKESERA.ALIYENSE AMENE ANAKHALAPO NDUNA KAPENA PULEZIDENT NGAKHALE MKULU WOYANG’ANIRA BUNGWE LIRILONSE, SAKALOWA KUMWAMBA CHIFUKWA ONSE ACHUMA NDI ACHINYENGO KOMANSO AKUPHA

  30. Km malawi pano watengeka ndizotengera kwambiri kd ndi anthu angati omwe amaphikira mages kumalawi? Nanga ndiangati amagwiritsa ntchito makala? Kd omwe amaotcha makalawa muwalemba ntchito yanji kt azithandiza mabanja awo? Nanga ophikira nkhuni muziwanganso kd ndie kt ndende mumanga anthu angati ? Ndakwiya nanu akulikunyinda inu

  33. SO WHAT HAS THE GOVERNMENT DONE TO REPLACE CHARCOAL WHICH IS THE MAIN SOURCE OF ENERGY IN ALMOST 95 PERCENT OF THE URBAN POPULATION? PAMENEPA PALIBE NZERU. CHOYAMBIRIRA BOMA LIKANAKHAZIKITSA NJIRA YOTI MALASHA NDI MAGETSI ADZIPEZEKA MOSAVUTA PAMTENGO WOTSIKA KENAKA NKUMALANDA MAKALA KUKAPEREKA KUCHIPATALA MWAULELE KOMANSO KUMANGA OWOTCHAWO OSATI KULANDA MAKALA NKUKAPHIKIRA M’MANYUMBA MWAWO KAPENA KUWAGULITSA NDALAMA NKUGAWANA KUMENEKO NDIKUBA CHONCHO MA FOREST OFFICER ATHU SANGAKHALE OCHITA BWINO PACHUMA KOMANSO AMBIRI AMAFA MOSADZIWIKA BWINO CHIFUKWA CHODANDAULIDWA KOMANSO ANTHU ENA OMWE AMALANDIDWA MAKALA AMAKHALA OKHWIMA

  36. Unfair….in a country with a lot of educated people why dont we solve this problem….is it fair to continue punishing these people who hardly get a meal a day? is it fair to continue punishing those people yet the government can not provide meaningful job opportunities to these people?….how are we judging these situation can define who we are?Who are we to our fellow malawians?

  37. the best way to arrest this problem (charcoal burning) is to provide ALTERNATIVE SOURCES OF ENERGY. The government and the international community has the zeal to deal with deforestation as it has adverse effects on the environment. It is important for the government to protect the environment. in fact it is a constitutional matter. However, the war against charcoal burning remains far from being won if alternative sources of energy is not provided.

    I call upon someone or an institution to conduct a RESEARCH on the charcoal usage among malawians or the level of income for the majority of malawians. This should be looked at in relation to the available sources of energy available on the market.

    I for one support the effort taken by the government to curb charcoal burning…. but I call upon my fellow countrymen/women to bang our heads together so as to come up with cheaper alternative sources of energy if this battle is to be won

    2. i agree with you Owen. implementation of policies remains a challenge….beautiful policies on paper, without necessarily being implemented

  40. very unfortunate, same people utilising that product in their households molesting their own poor fellows who are capitalising on scarcity of energy in the country. Malawi society morals are being eroded by pretense of our own leaders. Why should we employ double standards?

    2. but those are illegal. how can we conserve the enviromenet if we support dat,nokha mukuti mvula ikuvuta masiku ano. why?tikuwononga chilengedwe.. kondani dziko lanu man..

    3. If you study ur Bible,one of the signs of end times is hunger!How do u expect it?No rains=hunger! In fact we should accept we are livng in last days,,,you go in parts of Chitipa,they dont burn charcoal,there is much forest, but they experienced rain shortages as well! We shouldnt blame shift, lets just pray for one another,we are realy livng in the last days!

  42. Moto wamakala omwe mukulanda kwa anthu ovutikafe mukaupeza tsiku la kiyama mukuona ngati .mukukonza zinthu zinthu zikukwera ngati malawi alibe nthaka .

    2. samaononga tengo amakala..amaotcha mitengo yodulidwa kale ndianthu ena kaya amatabwa..zinazi mumangoziwa kulimbana ndianthu osalakwa bwanji osalesa anthu amene amadula mitengowo kuti anthu asapeze tengo yowotchako makala.

  49. come on really, the judicial of malawi is a joke. k300 000 is just too much for the poor culprits

Comments are closed.