LILONGWE-(MaraviPost)-Pressure is mounting on President Peter Mutharika to fire incompetent and sleeping Energy Minister Jean Mathanga over fuel crisis which is paralysing businesses across the country.
Mathanga is abused of sleeping on duty when the nation is grappling with fuel crisis.
Economist has therefore called on Mathanga to wake up from deep slumber!
Economist’s furious attack on government’s silence as fuel crisis threatens to wipe out Malawi’s hard-won economic gains.
Dr Ben Dzolowere launched a blistering attack on the government’s handling of the crisis, demanding Minister of Energy Jean Namathanga finally break her silence and address an increasingly desperate public, as fuel queues continue to snake through Lilongwe, Blantyre and Mzuzu with no end in sight.
It comes just weeks after the World Bank praised Malawi for genuine economic progress, pointing to fiscal consolidation, improved foreign exchange management and growing signs of stabilisation following years of brutal economic shocks.
But Dzolowere warned those hard-fought gains could unravel entirely unless fuel supply is urgently normalised, delivering a stark warning that has sent shockwaves through economic circles.
“Fuel is the engine of the economy,” he said bluntly. “When it stops, everything stops.”
The crisis has already triggered a devastating chain reaction across the economy.
Transport costs have soared as minibus operators and freight transporters hike fares to cover hours lost sitting in queues, as well as the cost of sourcing fuel from the thriving black market.
Traders, in turn, are passing those brutal extra costs straight onto already struggling consumers.
That surge in transport costs is now feeding directly into runaway inflation, with food prices and the cost of basic goods climbing sharply as moving commodities from farms and border posts to markets becomes dramatically more expensive.
Dzolowere issued an ominous prediction that headline inflation is set to spike dramatically — potentially wiping out the very stabilisation the World Bank praised just weeks ago.
The damage doesn’t stop there. Productivity across the country is collapsing, with workers losing entire days stuck in fuel queues instead of earning a living, while small businesses are being forced to slash operating hours or shut down completely, unable to run generators or deliver goods to customers.
Manufacturing has also been thrown into chaos, with factories struggling desperately to move raw materials and finished products.
Perhaps most alarmingly, the crisis is fuelling a thriving parallel black market where desperate motorists are being forced to pay an eye-watering three times the official pump price just to keep moving — draining vital cash outside formal channels and piling even more pressure onto the country’s already fragile foreign exchange reserves.
Government coffers are also taking a direct hit, with plummeting business activity translating into sharply lower VAT and tax collections — threatening to undo the very fiscal consolidation that won Malawi praise from the World Bank in the first place.
Dzolowere warned that investor confidence has been badly shaken, with persistent shortages sending a damning signal of poor planning that risks reversing the hard-won credibility Malawi has painstakingly rebuilt with international development partners.
In his most scathing remarks yet, Dzolowere demanded the minister “wake up from deep slumber” and finally provide Malawians with a clear roadmap — including current fuel stock levels, what supplies are currently in transit, and a firm timeline for when normal supply will return.
He is calling for daily updates from both the ministry and NOCMA until the crisis is brought fully under control.
The Ministry of Energy has previously blamed the intermittent fuel supply on forex constraints and logistical bottlenecks along the import corridor — an explanation critics say is wearing increasingly thin as the crisis drags on.
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