After nearly a decade of foreign control, the Malawi Traffic Information System (Maltis) is now back in the hands of the government.
Principal Secretary for the Ministry of Transport, Bright Kumwembe, said Malawi has retaken authority of the system by overriding access held by external consultants.
It is now “firmly under government control”, he said.
“We have bypassed the foreign companies to reclaim our Maltis. They are no longer in control of it—we have changed the passwords,” Kumwembe said.
This means the government now manages all operations, including revenue collection.
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Maltis, developed by South Africa’s Fischer Consulting in partnership with local firm Movesa, was initially intended to modernise vehicle registration, licensing and traffic enforcement.
The system was supposed to be handed over to the Directorate of Road Traffic Services and Safety (DRTSS) by 2017.
Instead, the handover stalled for years, leaving Malawi dependent on foreign entities for a critical public service.
This prolonged arrangement exposed the country to risks in data security, operational continuity and institutional independence.
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For nearly a decade, Malawi effectively lost control over a key national system, highlighting serious weaknesses in project oversight, contract enforcement, and governance.
The delay also enabled monopolistic practices, particularly in the supply of number plates, disrupting service delivery and affecting revenue collection.
For citizens, the consequences have included delays in vehicle registration, licensing backlogs, increased costs, and eroding trust in public systems.
The delayed takeover also points to gaps in local capacity, leaving Malawi reliant on external expertise for system maintenance, upgrades, and cybersecurity.
According to Kumwembe, retaking control of Maltis would lead to full government oversight of vehicle and driver data. That means better data security, reduced risk of manipulation and improved trust in the system by the public.
“It would also improve efficiency in service delivery. With direct control, the department can quickly fix system issues, upgrade features, and reduce delays in services like vehicle registration, licensing and renewals,” he said.
In addition, this means enhanced revenue collection and accountability.
“Brining Maltis back under government control can help close loopholes that may have led to revenue leakages, ensuring that all payments are properly recorded and accounted for,” he said.
It also means better integration with other government systems, according to Kumwembe.
“This can support law enforcement, tax systems, and national identification programs, making operations more streamlined,” he said.
In January 2023, the then Attorney General Thabo Chakaka Nyirenda said with the capture of the road traffic system, some vehicles with Malawi number plates were being registered dubiously in South Africa.
He said this when he appeared before the Transport Committee of Parliament.
Nyirenda blamed the design of the contract which allowed for the capture of the system by a foreign entity.
“Taking into consideration the contracts the country entered in the past years, they will make the country poorer and poorer,” Nyirenda said.
In the 2024 Annual Economic Report, government said the consultant remained uncooperative despite a physical meeting that held in South Africa and an agreement to handover the system by June 30, 2022 Maltis started being upgraded in 2015. It preceded the old system which was implemented in 1999. The previous system was too rigid to interface with other systems.
The upgraded Maltis was launched on May 27, 2015 and was expected to be handed over in June 2017.
Government had procured the system based on the South African National Traffic Information System.
It was thought that once the system was upgraded it would facilitate traffic management through embracing new technologies to start electronically identifying traffic violations, fines and authenticating all output documents such as Certificate of Fitness (CoF), local and international road service permits and driving licence cards.
The automation regardless, service hitches such as network failures have been an everyday occurrence at the department such that in some cases, officials have been helpless they have been relying on remote assistance from the consultants at their base in South Africa.
