How long, Malawi? How long will citizens be subjected to the humiliating spectacle of standing in endless queues鈥攂egging for sugar as though it were a luxury and not a basic household staple? How long must we endure silence from officials whose duty is to protect the consumer, not watch idly as vultures circle around scarcity?
Let鈥檚 be brutally honest: this sugar crisis is no longer just an economic hiccup鈥攊t鈥檚 a national disgrace. What鈥檚 unfolding in supermarkets and street corners across the country is state-sanctioned exploitation, wrapped neatly in official silence and bureaucratic impotence.
A thriving black market now controls sugar distribution, and the beneficiaries aren鈥檛 struggling mothers or small business owners鈥攂ut opportunistic traders and a new breed of middlemen who call themselves 鈥渜ueue professionals.鈥 They鈥檝e turned public desperation into personal gain, stuffing bales of sugar into pickups while the rest of the country clutches empty baskets. This is the portrait of a nation abandoned.
The Ministry of Trade and Industry has gone AWOL, the Competition and Fair Trading Commission (CFTC) is hiding behind 鈥減ending responses,鈥 and Illovo鈥攁rmed with 97 percent market dominance鈥攄ares blame the weather. Spare us.
Malawians are being told to believe that rains delayed factory operations鈥攂ut what weather pattern accounts for the deliberate, calculated hoarding and the brazen reselling of sugar at K6,000 a packet? What kind of storm empowers traders to double their profits while bakers, tea rooms, and everyday families crumble under the weight of artificial scarcity?
This is not a supply chain failure鈥攊t is a governance failure. A moral failure. A regulatory collapse.
Where is the outrage from the Minister of Trade, Vitumbiko Mumba? Where is the consumer protection that the CFTC is paid to uphold? The sugar crisis has exposed a grotesque void in leadership and a sickening culture of complicity, where scarcity is weaponized and profit is prioritized over people.
And Illovo? A company that controls nearly the entire market and has the audacity to point fingers elsewhere? If ever there was a time for government to act decisively, this is it. A near-monopoly in a struggling economy should come with tighter accountability, not apologies and press statements.
Malawians are exhausted. We are tired of excuses, of deferred answers, of WhatsApp messages that 鈥渟till need clearance.鈥 We are tired of watching the few profit while the many suffer. We are tired of leaders who only appear when there鈥檚 ribbon to cut, not when there鈥檚 pain to confront.
This is not just about sugar鈥攊t鈥檚 about dignity. It鈥檚 about justice. And it鈥檚 about time those in power stopped sweet-talking us with empty reassurances and started acting like they care.
Until then, the bitter taste of this sugar crisis will remain a daily reminder of a nation that has lost its way.
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