Zesco Spokesperson Henry Kapata says over 70 poles which were being kept at a school in Muchinga Province have been gutted by unknown people.

In an interview, Kapata said the poles were for a project to put up a transmission line between Chama and Lundazi.

“It is at Chama Day School where we store these poles, now these are meant for Chama and Lundazi because we are putting up a 132Kv transmission line from Chipata to Lundazi because currently, Lundazi and Chama are served by Eskom Malawi, they are not connected to the grid, so these poles were at Chama Day School when unknown people gutted them, in fact, 70 were completely gutted, only 11 were saved and that is retrogressive,” said Kapata.

“Normally when we have such a situation when such material is gutted, it is gutted from the sides but not in the middle of the poles, that’s what breeds suspicion that there was sabotage. Police are now investigating the matter.”