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Blantyre Water Board (BWB) on Monday uncovered a scam in which its security guard is suspected of conniving with scrap dealers to sell off water pipes and valves worth over half-a-million kwacha ($4,629) for the utility company at a very low price of K2,000.
BWB security officer retired Malawi Army major Abraham Dauda said in an interview the guard, Garnett Tambula, was mentioned by a scrap dealer in Ndirande, Lapukeni Majawa, who was caught with the pipes and valves in Ndirande market.
Dauda said the utility company has been failing to repair and replace damaged pipes on time because of the theft.
He said Majawa was seen and caught by another BWB security officer at Ndirande Market with a pick-up vehicle filled with the pipes and valves.
A group of men stoned our man when he tried to intervene. This is stand-by equipment that we keep at our Chichiri Pumping Station and it is owned by Blantyre Water Board only, said Dauda.
He said the pipes and valves, imported from Zambia, are not locally available.
Dauda said there have been a lot of security breaches at the utility company hey decided to hire him in February this year.
Majawa, who was under police custody while giving his statement at BWB offices, said in an interview he bought the pipes and valves from the Chichiri Pumping Station but said he did not know that they were of any use.
All I know is that I was buying scraps. Of course, this was a deal of some kind between me and the guard, said Majawa.
He said he bought the pipes and valves at K2,000 and was intending to sell them to a white man who buys scrap metal and exports it to South Africa.
I would have been paid K5,500 for this, said Majawa.
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