Fuel This, Fuel That

Malawi is becoming synonymous with shortages.

To begin with, hope is becoming a scarce commodity as citizens find that what was promised on the campaign trail is not what is materialising on the ground.

For instance, while the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) pledged—in the runup to the September 16, 2025 Presidential, Parliamentary and Local Government Elections—to promote meritocracy, nepotism has taken the centre stage as tribesmen are taking over State affairs.

Talking of nepotism, the Malawi Congress Party (MCP) administration, which was ousted from power through the mighty muscle of the vote, bettered that dark art; putting people of one ethnic grouping in key public positions as if Malawi belongs to people from one region.

Here is an MCP administration that did not allow bonafide citizens of this country to hold peaceful demonstrations in its stronghold, turning Malawi into a dictatorship in a democratic dispensation.

Indeed, it was an administration that did not listen to the voice of reason, such that it even banned the importation of flesh milk that is used on medical grounds. People complained but nobody listened.

Fuel supply challenges became the in-thing, too, with motorists queuing for the commodity for nights and days on end.

Surely, Malawians lost hope in MCP and mercilessly booted it out of power last year, at a time the party had become too stubborn to think logically.

In its stead, Malawians opted for the DPP, which promised to restore citizens’ hope.

One of the problems the DPP pledged to address pertains to fuel—diesel and petrol—shortage.

However, the queues are back.

This is not what Malawians expected because the DPP had promised a lasting solution to the problem.

What baffles us is that almost all administrations seem to understand that fuel is a key commodity. They also, one way or another, seem to hint at solutions.

However, the solutions have been long coming.

Of course, we know that administrations sometimes create crises just to pretend to find temporary solutions they cash in on. For instance, they promise to use middlemen for a short time but, by the time they part ways with the middlemen, they have received kickbacks.

This is not the way to go.

The way to go is to ensure that Malawi exports more than it imports so that it can generate the much-needed forex and forever have its fuel tanks filled.

Otherwise, the country will face the problem of fuel supply shortages forever.