The importation of fuel into a normal country cannot be the preserve of a few individuals or a handful of companies who effectively comprise a cartel.

And when you are an underdeveloped little country with sooo many Problems (with a capital P), you have very high levels of Poverty (another capital P), you have very high levels of Corruption (capital C), you have high levels of Inequality(the gap between rich and poor is sooo wide), how can you think it’s still okay to do things the archaic way of awarding fuel importation contracts to a handful of companies? Effectively creating small monopolies, the way things were being done 30 or 40 years ago, when Malawi had a small population, less energy needs and was a very different country ruled by a dictator?

Iyayi anthuni, it’s not right. This is a national iniquity that is dragging the country backwards, which we need to rethink.

Also, the way the fuel is brought into the country, why are we opting for the expensive route of bringing fuel into the country? Why are we choosing the harder way?

How can your country develop like that, when you are creating small monopolies instead of distributing resources to a larger group of companies?

Why on earth are we opting to import fuel more expensively, when there’s a cheaper option available?

That is not how you create wealth for your country. How can we lower fuel prices at the pump like that? Sustaining a monopoly can’t possibly help us reduce inequality and ensure that more people benefit from Government resources. Kuti Malawi azikomeladi Tonse.

Whatever the justifications of the past, no person or company should have a monopoly on the supply of fuel (or indeed any important commodity in a small country such as ours).

The supply of fuel should be entrusted to a larger more democratic group of companies. Here I’m talking tenders awarded fairly to 100+ different companies, with a clearly distinct ownership, & no conflicts of interest.

The process should be clear and transparent, and no one should lord over such an important aspect of our country.

Dziko ndi la tonse. Both rich and poor. Let’s be fair and honest, and brotherly towards each other.

Dyera, where some people want to accumulate all the resources while their neighbours struggle and live in abject poverty, won’t take us anywhere.

In fact without sustained antitrust policies, the inequality we’re seeing will simply make Malawi a more dangerous country to live in. Soon we’ll be like South Africa where the security situation in some places is really bad.

That kind of thing happens because resources are not being properly shared by the state, and too few people are being awarded all the major benefits, while the masses barely scrape a living. It’s poverty that breeds criminality.

By the way, this fairer distribution of resources extends to other aspects of life as well, all the way to the allocation or awarding of board positions in public organisations.

Zinazitu if we are to move forward as a country we will need to in the biblical words of Apostle Paul …

‘lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us’.

We need a mindset change. We need to change the way things have been done in the past to a fairer more transparent system that benefits a much larger group of companies, and through that a larger number of Malawians.