Businesses at Six Miles Market along M3 main road in Zomba are at a standstill, and residents around the area are in darkness as they are entering the third month without electricity. The Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (ESCOM) says the company is failing to fix the problem due to a shortage of Forex.
According to the residents and business owners who have been affected by this, they have been without power since December last year following a faulty Transformer, and after reporting the issue to the Zomba ESCOM office, they are being told that the country has no Forex to procure a new transformer.
According to some members of the area, they feel like ESCOM is playing games for them to cough money to ESCOM, saying one ESCOM official told them to raise funds for a new Transformer.
According to one business person at the market, it’s so sad to note that ESCOM has not helped them since last year; he added that all business that demands electricity have gone off, starting from small to medium businesses.
He further said one day after continuous fault reporting, ESCOM officials told them that Forex would be available when Malawi’s Tobacco selling season is in session as it is the time the country generates Forex, thus around May -June.
A number of citizens in the country have complained about the unresting tendency of some ESCOM officials who always demand some money for them to respond to electricity faults.
ESCOM officials have not commented yet on the development, which has left a section of Zomba six miles residents desperate and economic activities shut.
