A Malawian visiting relatives in the US was surprised how his relatives living in Atlanta were able to leave without worry in un-fenced houses. He was even surprised that his relatives were able to park cars in the open without need to lock the doors. All he could say is that we can no longer do this in Malawi, Achimwene we are hiding behind fences. Almost every house has to have a fence.
He recounted a story about his son who had withdrawn a lot of money from the Bank to pay his employees and was followed by thieves and hijacked. Fortunately for him the thieves had not realised he had dropped the money with someone just before they demanded to be given the money they had seen him withdraw from the Bank.
At night when you are driving you cannot stop at traffic lights even when they are red for fear of being hijacked. It is therefore not surprising that one of Malawians biggest investors in the country the Chinese are threatened to pull out of Malawi unless there is a stop to violence against them, the media reported on Tuesday.
According to The Nation daily, an official from the Chinese embassy has warned that increased cases of violence in Malawi could force Chinese investors to relocate to neighbouring countries if the situation does not improve.
Wang Jiaxin Judson, a counsellor in the economic and commercial section of the embassy, said insecurity in Malawi was getting out of control.
“Our hope is that government and the inspector general of the police will do their best to improve the security and bring back investors’ confidence,” Wang said.
He warned that most Chinese investors could be forced to relocate to neighbouring Mozambique, Tanzania and Zambia unless the security situation is improved.
The warning comes in the wake of a recent spate of attacks on Chinese businesspeople in the capital Lilongwe.
In the latest incident, four armed robbers allegedly followed a vehicle carrying a Chinese national from a bank and allegedly shot the car, before making off with cash amounting to K5 million (about US$10,650).
Without security all the impressive plans the President laid out in his National Statement address cannot be realised. If people cannot feel safe within the walls of their own houses. Without security human development cannot happen. Unfortunately urbanization and high concentration of humanity without hope bring these kinds of problems. The solutions of community policing demand heavy investments that will definetly eat away from what the President is trying to do. However the problem of security needs to addressed at the same time Malawi President is implementing his stated agenda.
