By Chisomo Phiri

The poor performance of Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi’s (ESCOM) Zomba office has disappointed Minister of Energy, Ibrahim Matola.

Matola made a surprise visit at the office on Friday in reaction to complaints he received from some customers he met in the district.

The energy minister singled out Sekani Banda’s situation who traveled from Nasawa in Traditional Authority (T/A) M’biza to the office to physically report a fault after the Escom failed to address his problem since Monday despite several phone calls he made.

Banda told Matola that from his home to the office he spent over K7400 on transport and said he had to meet the costs since his businesses that solely relies on electricity has stalled.

According to Matola, the situation is pathetic saying at the time when the country is producing enough energy no citizen should be denied access to electricity because of delayed response.

But Escom’s Zomba district distribution supervisor Wilson Mapira attributed the challenges to insufficient resources.

According to Mapira the office covers a radius from Mposa in Machinga to Chiradzulu as well as from Chipini in Chingale to Kachulu along Lake Chilwa but has one faults response vehicle.

Mapira added that the office depends much on temporary staff as well as on outdated office equipment

In Zomba, over forty faults are registered on a normal day and hundred during rainy season.