By Isaac Salima:
The Ministry of Transport and Public Works has disclosed that the Directorate of Road Traffic and Safety Services (DRTSS) has halted its services due to a malfunction in the Malawi Transport Information System (Maltis).
For the past two months, service seekers at the directorate have been experiencing network challenges.
In a statement released by the ministry Wednesday, it was indicated that the system developed an error on January 6, 2025.
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“As a consequence, the DRTSS and its agencies are unable to provide all services that are processed through the system. The ministry and the system supplier are working tirelessly to resolve the problem since it was discovered.
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“Despite the urgency to have the system back within the shortest period, the technical nature of the problem required more time to resolve than earlier estimated,” the statement, signed by Secretary for Transport and Public Works David Mzandu says.
The ministry further assured that progress has been made and that it expects services to be restored this week.
One of the service providers, Fischer Consulting, in a written response through their lawyer, George Liwimbi, said that they were contacted about the problem.
“During the investigation, it was noted that the system had run out of disc space due to a problem in the backup process following an uncontrolled power failure at the server hosting centre.
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“The disc space was cleaned and the system was restarted. Thereafter, users reported that they could still not work and during further investigation, inconsistencies in the data were noted,” Liwimbi said.
He added that the firm has since advised DRTSS to have hardware experts on-site.
“Efforts to recover the environment and transfer resources to the new storage space have been unsuccessful up to date due to persisting issues with the physical hardware environment.
“FC [Fischer Consulting] recommended to DRTSS to have hardware experts on site who will be in a position to assess and resolve the physical hardware environment in the hosting centre, which will allow FC to proceed with restoring the data and recover the Maltis system,” Liwimbi said.
Maltis servers handle all essential services of DRTSS and have been operated by South Africa-based companies.
However, since November last year, motorists have been struggling to access services due to network problems.
This is happening at a time when the government, through the Attorney General’s office, has been struggling to take over management of the system for almost seven years.
Recent visits to the DRTSS Southern Regional Office in Blantyre found motorists in long queues, waiting for the network to resume.
The majority of the people were minibus drivers, who complained that they were being fined for not meeting category requirements on their driving licences.
“DRTSS has resumed fining drivers over category issues. However, when we come here, we are made to wait due to network problems,” Misheck Maliwa, a minibus driver from Mbayani in Blantyre, told us.
During the day, commotion ensued as minibus drivers protested that they were spending too much time in the queue when they were supposed to be on the road.
This prompted the Minibus Owners Association of Malawi to write to DRTSS, asking for the suspension of fines for category requirements.
“It will be impossible to issue PSV licences to all drivers at once. We kindly ask for a waiver. We seek a grace period… This will give us ample time to sensitise our drivers,” a letter signed by Moam General Secretary Coxley Kamange read.
The Maltis system has been operated from South Africa and upon the expiry of the contract with the government, the firms were, in 2017, instructed to hand over its management to Malawi. However, the companies have not done so.
Attorney General (AG) Thabo Chakaka Nyirenda recently told us that they are taking the matter to court after growing frustrated with the companies’ repeated promises.
“We engaged their lawyer some months ago, who pleaded with us not to take the matter to court. I contacted him two weeks ago and they have not complied with what we agreed. We are proceeding with court action,” Chakaka Nyirenda said.
The firms’ lawyer, Liwimbi, also said that they were waiting for the government to respond to the issues they raised with the office of the AG.
“They may proceed with their court action,” Liwimbi said.
