On Shoprite closure and possible ownership by Malawians:

Pelekani Mankhwala!

Sana and Chipiku are the biggest chain stores in Malawi now. How many Chipiku or Sana vehicles do you see in town? Despite you not seeing their vehicles (they don’t have many) they are able to distribute to their shops across the country and operate at a profit.
How many of the Chipiku and Sana bosses drive 4x4s from Toyota, Nissan etc. How many Sana and Chipiku managers have their kids fees paid by employers at KA, St Andrew’s and other expensive schools.
Now go back to PTC and recollect the beautiful 4x4s the managers were driving. Go to other Malawian public companies and check the big cars top and middle managers drive. Even managers that don’t work in the hard to reach areas are given those big cars. Have you wondered why Airtel makes more profits than our own TNM?

That’s the type of business model we have chosen in Malawi. Earn little, drive big, spend big and compensate with stealing and inefficiency. Go to the Admarc regional office in Lilongwe and see the SUVs the managers of that dead parastatal are driving.
A Civil servant earning $1000 a month is given a $100000 SUV for personal driving and government has to service and maintain it regularly.

Why not pay him/her $3000 a month, he buys his own car, chose the school he can send kids etc.

Trust me we can’t run Shoprite with the mentality we have. We have a peasant mentality where the only way to success is to be seen to be successful even when we aren’t successful.

Good cars are important but Let’s work and buy cars ourselves, send kids to school ourselves. We have wasted too much money as a country on feel good investments. In the end no public business is helping Malawians.

By Dr. Horace Nyaka