Will the real cause of Chaponda office fire be known?

Advertisement
Ministry of Agriculture Office fire

Government may give hope on angry Malawians who have unanswered questions, perhaps thinking in a wrong way following the fierce fire that gutted the offices of the ministry of agriculture, irrigation and water development on Tuesday.

This is not the first time for a fire incident to crop up in a building that may have contained evidence for a controversial issue that needed investigation.

When reports of corruption at Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (ESCOM) involving politicians looting money meant for citizens surfaced years, an inferno burnt many documents at ESCOM House in Blantyre.

Escom House fire
Escom House also caught fire years ago.

However, hope to know the truth of the matter was brought in when investigations were launched to establish the cause of fire, but the report by South African Incendium Fire Investigations firm stirred debate on whether the findings were correct.

Among such quarters that cast doubt on the findings included Consumers Association of Malawi (CAMA) who felt the report was ‘manipulated’.

CAMA executive director John Kapito faulted ESCOM for blocking the allegations of “foul play” as they were on record to have said that the matter was buried since the firm disclosed that there was insufficient interpretable fire patterns to allow for determination of an area of fire origin during interior inspection.

“We do not believe and trust such a report. Looking at the comments from ESCOM, they have rushed to conclude on the findings of the report where they have indicated that with this report everything surrounding the ESCOM fire is dead and buried.

“We strongly believe that the report is a manipulation by an insurance consultant who in our opinion did not understand the key issues that the people of Malawi believed to have been the cause of the fire,” Kapito said at the time.

This tells that many other Malawians who were not quoted on the press up to date do not really know the cause of fire that gutted ESCOM House.

Another mysterious fire accident that occurred in recent years is the inferno that gutted down the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) warehouse.

The incident happened while there was a court battle over parliamentary results in Lilongwe City South East Constituency between Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and MCP candidates.

Preliminary findings on investigation on the possible cause of the fire by Malawi police showed that it was ‘normal inferno’.

Ministry of Agriculture Office fire
Ministry of Agriculture Office fire.

Malawi Inspector General Lexten Kachama disclosed that the fire was a mere accident, remarks that raised eyebrows of MCP members who described the sentiments as “unfortunate”.

MCP called for an independent investigation to carry on the probing of allegations of foul play, but as that was not done we can conclude that the party still believes the fire was politically motivated while others who chose to be fair hope that maybe in the future the cause of the will appear to face the light.

As the same fate of fire that has followed controversial issue of maize purchase in Zambia by Malawi has fallen on offices of ministry that has been cornered for corrupt dealings in the buying of staple grains, the public is yet to know the cause.

Police have embarked on investigation to know what caused the inferno at the offices of Chaponda and we are patience as we have been requested by minister of information Nicholas Dausi, waiting for the report by the Police on what caused the fire.

But following the investigations should we expect that the Police are to tell the real cause of the fire?

Advertisement

27 Comments

  1. Zondinyasa kwambiri ndizoti akutentha ma ofesi ngati anamanga ndi iwowo chonsecho anamanga ndi kamuzu kodi pa nthawi yo magesi kunalibe? Mfiti za dpp Mulungu akukuona kwathu timati “Wabisama pa chande msana waonekera”

  2. Chafa kwa ife osauka odulidwa mtsonkho tikaotcha makala athu tiagulisa kachasu wathu kukapanga passport ndalama zake a chaponda ophunzila bwino kumangoononga basi..malo mogula mankhwala mnzipatala za boma zoopsa mwandipyesa mtima kwabasi…

  3. Ufiti sikulodza uwu ndiwachiwonekere.kupha aMalawi kumeneko..u can run now bt uwill never run from God.u will be punished for making his people suffered. bcz of ur own needs..the same fire u used to burn that office will burnt u alive…shame on u heartress piple

  4. U will never know because they will say its electrical faulty. But all the files are burnt to ashes. Its a plan how to escape maizegate scandal. And the worse part is tax payers money is going to be used to renovate the building and they will over charge the expenditure. God is watching

  5. kamuzu did a good job….only fools are destroying it……mukulephere kupanga chitukuko, we are still using Kamuzu banda’s development yet destroying it becouse of selfisness….mukatelo mupasanenso ma contract to renovate it costing billions of our tax money. zandiwawa i think you collecting more in TAXES THAN YOU NEED. Please reduce PAY AS YOU EARN TO 10% so that we people should have more to develop our country and stop all these nonses of cashgating leading to destruction of our own National Properties.

Comments are closed.