Listen, Malawi is not a stage for comedy
The comic way this country is run no longer amuses. It has become drab and irritating. Some things are just too much for the citizenry.
Some weeks ago, the Directorate of Road Traffic and Safety Services shocked Malawians when they imposed some inexplicable hefty fees and fines. The fines and fees justifiably attracted a public uproar until, ashamed by its own inconsiderate decision, the directorate suspended the decision. It has not ended there.
On Wednesday, The Daily Times uncovered some illegal hike of water tariffs by the country’s water boards. Secretly, violating the Consumer Protection Act, the water boards raised the tariff without informing consumers.
For three months, consumers have been unknowing victims of some crooked and clandestine decision by the water boards. The water boards knew they were duping their customers and they gleefully continued that for three good months.
The truth is that, without the revelation by The Daily Times, Minister of Agriculture and Water Development could not have come in to bail out cheated Malawians.
Now, the question we should be asking is: what other bills are Malawians paying unknowingly? The water boards surely are led by learned people who understand the Consumer Protection Act and they knew and were happy that they were cheating Malawians. It is such people that have created misery for Malawians and they must not be tolerated.
The decision by the government has come rather too late when Malawians have already been cheated. And, again, the decision to reverse that criminal decision is not enough. We need to know all the minds behind that cheating scheme and implementation.
It must not end there, Malawians need not only an apology but they must be given all the money stolen from them through this inhumane act of advertently duping unsuspecting citizens who are facing economic hardships while some of them were made to pay 15 percent more for water that is mixed with sewage.
What we can observe here about these obscene hikes of services and subsequent reversal, are after public outcry or revelation are all about some evil shenanigans or testing a nations resolve.
All we are saying is that Malawians must not be taken for granted because they are already having a dress rehearsal of hell. This must stop.
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