Linesperson fixing a fault. Photo credit: Escom
Lights go out mid-surgery at a clinic in Blantyre. A nurse freezes. For a few seconds, there is silence. Then a backup generator coughs to life. The patient survives. Not every patient in Malawi gets that second chance.
“Gensets help, but at times lives are lost,” says nurse-midwife technician Flora Kalilombe, drawing from her experience in both private and public hospitals.
She recalls an emergency where she relied on her phone’s torchlight to assist a woman in labour deliver successfully, except for one concern.
“Her placenta got stuck in the uterus. We had to act. My phone was soaked in blood. I lost it as I tried to clean it with spirit,” she says, pointing out “Such deliveries don’t happen once.”
When power cuts, treatment stops. Hospitals are forced to stretch limited resources to keep critical services running. Even then, backup systems are not guaranteed.
“Our healthcare largely depends on electric power,” says Ministry of Health spokesperson Adrian Chikumbe. “Without it, in less than 10 minutes, we would lose the lives of most of these [critically ill] patients.”
Blackouts cost hospitals millions each day
“Just one heavy-duty genset covering only crucial areas at a district or central hospital runs on 20 to 30 litres per hour,” adds Chikumbe. “That is about K2.5 million a day that was not budgeted for.”
For Kalilombe, backup systems are not always reliable. When fuel runs out or generators fail, the burden shifts to frontline staff. “You prepare for the worst because you know something can go wrong,” she says.
Across Malawi, stolen power infrastructure is vandalised for sale. Escom loses around K3 billion annually to the vice, diverting funds meant for expanding access into constant repairs.
With only a quarter of the population connected to the grid, every damaged transformer or stolen cable pushes electrification further out of reach.
In Nkhata Bay, suspected vandals recently cut a 23-metre copper cable worth K3.1 million, plunging entire communities into darkness. Shops closed early. Learners abandoned their books. Health facilities shifted to emergency mode.
What looks like petty theft is now organised crime. In September 2025, authorities intercepted K1.5 billion worth of vandalised and stolen Malawian copper at Nyamapanda border in Zimbabwe, hidden in a truck declared as scrap metal. Investigations linked the shipment to coordinated criminal networks moving infrastructure materials across borders.
For some, the trade is driven by survival. With limited job opportunities and a growing scrap market, stolen copper offers quick income, even as it weakens already fragile power infrastructure.
The consequences of the vice are immediate and sometimes fatal. A suspected vandal, identified as Madalitso Sojali recently died at the Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital in Blantyre after being electrocuted for tampering with high-voltage Escom equipment in the city.
Linespersons face the same risk. In January 2026, two of them were killed while repairing a fault in Nsalu, Lilongwe. And the danger also extends to unsuspecting citizens.
A human rights violation
Counsel Kolezi Phiri, a Lawyer with the Malawi Legal Aid Bureau, argues infrastructure theft does not just damage property. It also erodes basic rights.
“Access to electricity underpins the right to health, education, information and to earn a living. When power systems fail, patients lose critical care, students lose learning time and communities are cut off from essential services,” says Phiri. “The mlapractice compromises the obligation of the State to promote the welfare and development of the people of Malawi.”
Authorities step in
Government has responded with tougher laws. The Electricity (Amendment) Act of 2024 raised fines of up to K100 million and introduced prison sentences of up to 30 years for vandalism and illegal connections. Yet enforcement is struggling to keep pace.
Police are making arrests. Some communities are organising patrols. Scrap dealers are facing regulation. But the trade persists, driven by the rising global demand for copper, high local unemployment, weak monitoring across borders and a growing informal market that absorbs stolen materials faster than authorities can track them.
In some communities, vigilance is bearing fruit. Communities are reporting suspects, authorities are intercepting shipments and utilities are exploring surveillance. But these efforts remain fragmented against a network that is coordinated and adaptive.
“We cannot guard every pole or transformer,” Escom Chief Operations Officer Maxwell Malimakwenda recently told the press. “Communities remain our first line of defence.”
A regional problem with human costs
Across SADC, the problem is escalating. Countries are reporting increasing cases of power infrastructure vandalism. South Africa, for instance, reports losses in billions of Rands. Zimbabwe has lost 1000 kilometres of power lines in a year and 6000 transformers.
A 2023 WHO global report notes that in sub-Saharan Africa, only half of hospitals have reliable electricity access. It adds close to 1 billion people in poor countries are served by health-care facilities without reliable electricity, or with no electricity access at all.
Over 600 million people – 4 in 5 are in sub-Saharan Africa – remain without access to energy, with the UN’s Economic Commission for Africa’s 2025 statement measuring the region’s dependence on kerosene, candles and firewood through “stalled growth, missed opportunities and about 700,000 preventable deaths each year.
Power infrastructure theft presents a critical threat to development, causing significant setbacks to attaining a number of Sustainable Development Goals, including SDG 3 on good health and well-being, SDG 7 on affordable and clean energy, and SDG 9 on industry, innovation and infrastructure.
“We urge the public to desist from vandalising Escom equipment. They may one day be our next patient or guardian,” concludes Chikumbe.
When the lights go out, many health workers like Flora do not stop working.
But they know that sometimes, effort is not enough.
In those moments, survival depends on how quickly the power comes back.
