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Malawi - A Beacon for the Region

If one were to look only at Zimbabwe and the Democratic Republic of Congo as indicators of south and central Africa's good or bad fortunes, potential investors would catch the first plane out of here. Grossly mismanaged by inept politicians, these two countries are the odd ones out - the pariahs of the region and the stumbling blocks in the region's quest to realise its full growth potential. While they barge along their self-destructive paths, it is important that the world takes note of the genuine desire of other countries in the region to build their economies - albeit from a low base. Malawi is such a country and good news for truckers is that road transport enjoys priority status in the eyes of government with several road projects underway aimed at boosting the flow of traffic through the country. However, as FleetWatch correspondent Graeme Addison discovered on a recent visit, Malawi, like most other African countries, is a land of vast contrasts and contradictions.

Nacala Development Corridor : Although this development corridor will impact on road transport, even the local truckers are upbeat about it seeing it as being in the interest of Malawi's economic growth. The railway will probably take on a lot of the fuel imports currently being hauled by trucks.

Spread out on the ground in the shade of an immense Brachystegia tree was a clean tarpaulin and on this, in neat piles, were old nuts, bolts, springs and washers of all shapes and sizes. The transport business operator and his mechanic were down on their knees carefully sorting the ironmongery. Each man would pick up a nut, wipe the old grease off it, scrutinise its thread carefully and maybe feel it with a forefinger. Then, if it passed the test, it was put into the pile for re-use.

Nothing was thrown away. If an item did not pass the test, it was dropped in a basket which, I was told, would be sold to passing merchants for "building purposes" - presumably for bolting together the frameworks of huts. The re-usable mechanical parts were stored in rows of cardboard boxes in a thatched, reed-built shed forming the workshop of this rustic transport business.

Admittedly it's not your average South African Midas store but this is ground level transport in Malawi and it works for these guys. Why? Because they are determined to make it work.

I use this incident to kick off my article as it epitomises the enterprising spirit of the average Malawian. The people of this nation are not waiting for hand-outs of new 'parts'. Rather, they are making the best of what they have in their quest to move forward and it is this spirit which, I believe, has Malawi standing as a beacon for other countries in the region.

I have written a lot for FleetWatch over the past few years about transport in Africa and about the growing crisis of wars, diseases, natural disasters, political folly and sheer mismanagement plaguing the region. The dream of President Thabo Mbeki for an African Renaissance has been dulled, though not quite extinguished, by developments since I wrote my first upbeat article about the subject in 1998.

If the dream is not dead, it is because the infrastructural projects upon which it depends are still very much alive: the construction of roads, power grids, water supply systems, telecommunications and Internet links; much of it led by South Africa, with our government opening the way for private and state-sponsored investment in the sub-Saharan region through the SADC network.

The other reason it is not dead is simply because the spirit of the ordinary people in countries like Mozambique and Malawi is attuned to progress rather than regress. In Mozambique, in particular, the people are tired of war and hardship. They want to move away from the destructive era of the past into a new era of harmony and prosperity.

Good Shape : Looking in good shape for the conditions it operates under. The road doesn't look too bad either but the condition of the some of the rural roads are pretty awful. That's Africa.

Sorting Spares : Sorting out nuts and bolts the Malawian way. It aint Midas but it seems to work for the locals.

However, let's face it, the initial high hopes for a new era of good governance and business efficiency have taken a serious knock, especially from the recent land-grabs and violence in Zimbabwe and the blight of continuing warfare in the Congo - those two pariahs of the region.

With all of this in mind, I decided to discover an African country from the ground up. With my wife Karen and adopted son Damian (13) as more or less willing companions (more when the roads were flat, less when the way was steep) that's exactly what we did. For three weeks we cycled through Malawi, wandering from Blantyre and Zomba up to the lake and finally making it in time for our flight out of Lilongwe airport. We stayed in rest houses and ate in mud huts called 'restaurants'.

It was a holiday but also a quest for discovery, seeking an answer to the question whether my initial optimism about Africa was entirely misplaced; optimism blunted in part not only by the events in Zimbabwe and the Congo but also by The Economist magazine, one of the world's leading opinion formers, writing Africa off as a flawed continent where little can be achieved so long as wars and corruption make legitimate business difficult or impossible.

I can now confidently report that my optimism was not misplaced. Africa is alive and kicking and certainly in the case of Malawi, the latent possibilities for growth and trade are there in abundance. The impression I gained from my visit is that the African Renaissance is not dead and the countries of the region can co-operate for their mutual benefit.

In fact, I would go so far as to say that anyone in the transport business who is seriously looking at future investment in Africa, could do well to consider Malawi as a kind of staging post for transport operations in other countries of the region.

Not only is the positioning of the country ideal in being placed squarely between southern, central and eastern Africa but the infrastructure is also improving with projects such as the resurfacing of the main north-south and east-west roads now underway. With Mozambique's ports being revamped, Malawi is a transportation corridor serving all its neighbours: Tanzania and Mozambique on the east coast, and landlocked Zimbabwe and Zambia to the west.

Certainly the country has its problems. The harsh reality is that it falls among the world's 20 poorest nations. Its gross domestic product averages around US $219 per head (South Africa's is more than ten times that). Until recently, Malawi also had one of the highest birth rates in the world averaging around 3.3% but the fact that it has now dropped to an estimated 1.5% or even lower is not good news. Why? Because the AIDS pandemic is doing it: whole villages are dying; the army and government bureaucracy are being decimated and a mood of desperation lurks in the eyes of health workers and churchmen.

That's the bad news. The good news is that Malawi has never had a war and since the dictator President Hastings Banda was voted out of power in 1994, it has operated as a genuine democracy. While we were there, the newspapers featured numerous stories showing that a culture of openness has taken firm root. There was plenty about corruption in government and officials being held accountable for projects gone wrong. We were treated to accounts of fisticuffs between parliamentarians, details of the seizure of Malawi Escom's vehicles and others assets because the utility has not paid its debts, and the exposure of human rights abuses in prisons. I felt genuinely at home.

If freedom is just another word for telling it like it is, then Malawi has more than enough to spare right now. In fact, in my role as a teacher of media skills and researcher into mass communication, I was forced to wonder whether the Malawian press is too uninhibited for its own good; sooner or later government may clamp down citing invasions of privacy as its justification. For the time being, information about how the country runs is widely available; and that can only be a good thing.

More than anything, what impressed me was the enterprising spirit of the average Malawian. This is no lazy African backwater. Everyone is growing, making, recycling, stripping, reworking and selling something. You want bananas? Tomatoes? Repaired inner tubes? Plastic buckets? A steaming cup of the best Tanganda tea? Dried fish? It's all for sale in crowded markets along the road verges, even in the most out-of-the-way rural areas where hardly a car passes in a day.

These people are busy fighting their way up from what is at present a subsistence-based free-market economy. It is almost a model of what economists call "perfect competition", for every entrepreneur has specialised in a product and competes with other specialists on the basis of pure demand and supply.

The range of items on sale is amazing. Some Malawians are quarrying gravel from pits in their backyards and selling piles of it for asvelt surfacing; you can stop and fill up the boot of your car or the back of your bakkie. Others are cutting the rubber from tyres to make long strips for tie-ons.

Alternative Transport : In Malawi, bikes are the trucks of the common people. They carry thatch, charcoal, baskets of fish and piles of cassava roots to markets.

We bought some of these tie-ons to hold stuff on our bikes. When you cycle around Africa, you move at the pace of the villagers, since the bike is the universal mode of transport for passengers, goods and services. In Malawi, bikes are the trucks of the common people. They carry thatch, charcoal, baskets of fish and piles of cassava roots to markets.

They are also the taxis of the common people and in the main villages, there are bicycle taxi-ranks where for 20 kwacha (about R2), you can perch unsteadily on the carrier behind the cyclist and be conveyed to your destination.

Malawians also have no hang-ups about the country's murky past relationship with South Africa. They are aware that President Banda's showpiece capital, Lilongwe, was funded by South African money in the years when the apartheid state was looking for allies in Africa and perhaps needed forward bases for its military. But the warm relationship persisted because, when President Mandela pronounced his views on Malawi in March 1998, it was to say that Banda's policy of contact and dialogue had his full endorsement.

Unfortunately for Malawi, the demise of white nationalism also put an end to aid from this quarter. Roads and infrastructure worsened and Malawi was forced to go looking for new sources of aid, much of which now comes from the European Union and the US. The largely US-sponsored African Development Fund (ADF) announced in December 1999 that some $18.54-million would be used to improve road and transport services in the far northern Karonga-Chitipa area of the country.

Tourism : Tourism companies have a problem with maintenance and the price of spares for their vehicles. They prefer buying spares in South Africa claiming its the cheaper route to go.

This is good news for all longhaul transporters. The Malawian government says it is giving priority to the completion of a north-south corridor route linking the south to the Tanzanian port of Dar-es-Salaam, and in so doing reduce the costs of transport. The route used to be a nightmare.

Malawi's two main road networks, both tarmac, run parallel in a north-south direction. One cuts across the highlands via Lilongwe, and the other follows the Shire River and lakeshore from Mangochi. Railways cut across the country in an east-west direction, connecting with a network of secondary and feeder roads that spread out from the main commercial centre of Blantyre in the south.

Road transporters have also benefited from the woes of Malawi Railways which has unwisely charged high rates on its cargo route through the Mozambique corridor to the port of Nacala. Businesses have been cautious over the use of the port mainly due to security concerns and the unreliable state of the railway line itself.

This is set to change, however, with the launch of the upgraded railway line to Nacala in November. It's going to be a big bash with the Presidents of four countries - South Africa, Malawi, Zambia and Mozambique - scheduled to be there on the day. Perchance a glimpse of the African Renaissance at work?

Privatisation of Malawi Railways, beginning in 1999, rendered nearly 400 railworkers jobless. Everywhere I went, there was evidence of increased joblessness in the formal sector, due to the World Bank-imposed Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) which has brought about economies in government. But entrepreneurship appeared to be on the rise, which is exactly the aim of the SAP. If it succeeds, then the evidence we saw of a thriving free market economy at the village level could translate into a vigorous economic upswing by small enterprises.

I spoke to several locals involved in transport about the nature of their business and the problems they faced. One was called Fissip Zongo who sprang from Ngoni stock which is related to the Zulus who invaded the country two centuries ago.

Fissip is a small transporter - very small - operating with two Toyota 1-ton bakkies out of Blantyre where, like many other small Malawian transporters, he carries anything and everything from building materials to people. The price of fuel - at around 45 kwatcha per litre (or R6) - is his main worry and it causes him to run his vehicles only when he has a full payload. In fact, that means an overfull payload, as I observed, with the vehicles groaning under the strain.

A tourism company based at Cape Maclear on the southern end of Lake Malawi, Kayak Africa, maintains a large safari overlander vehicle and a couple of 4x4s. Their problems come down to maintenance and the cost of spares. Their strategy has been to run their own workshop and drive to South Africa to buy spares. Despite the costs of the trip and the risk of paying high duties at the border, their workshop foreman told me they were getting spares at one-third of the price of locally available imports.

They also sorted their spares on a tarp on the ground but in their case, the parts were all shiny and new. This was not the case at a bush workshop near the town of Mangochi (formerly Fort Johnston) where I watched old spares being carefully selected for re-use.

Here transporter Jo Banda services his own trucks, tractors and trailers and also retails the recycled parts. Major suppliers based in Blantyre and Lilongwe provide spares and maintenance at the best competitive rates which are nonetheless, fairly punishing for small enterprises.

These are the smaller guys. There are other - much larger - transporters like R. Gaffar Transport Ltd, one of the largest transport companies in the country with 120 rigs doing both internal and cross-border work. Theirs is a more formalised operation with much more professional structures in place. (See sidebar story).

The significant point is that both the small operator with two bakkies and the bigger guy with 120 rigs live alongside each other in harmony and in the certain knowledge that each provides a particular service to this country.

This same situation exists in South Africa but it is not recognised, perhaps because the bigger transporter is very much a First Word animal and because of their size, the smaller operators are deemed irrelevant. Yet they are there operating in the townships and rural areas of the country providing a service.

In Malawi, the smaller guy is important and evidence of this is that the Road Transport Association of Malawi has over 200 transport member companies. Admittedly, only about 40 or 50 are serious players but the fact that the other smaller ones are there as members, is evidence that they are given due recognition for the role they play.

The one may have its spares neatly arranged on shelves in the store (First World) while the other sorts its spares on a tarpaulin on the ground (Third World). But both are considered important contributors to the economy. And it is this contrast that perhaps best sums up the African situation.

Too many people - too many investors - look at the guy sorting spares on a tarpaulin as representing archaic practices and therefore backward movement. Not so! This is Africa and it is these small enterprises that will make Africa work. It's happened in other places in the world where the combined contribution of small entrepreneurs have gone a long way towards making up the 'whole' success. Taiwan is just one example. Why, therefore, must such businesses be viewed as backward merely because they are in Africa?

The problem confronting Malawi - how to ramp up from being an impoverished subsistence economy to becoming a real player in regional transport - is a familiar one throughout Africa and the so-called "fourth world".

South Africa's interests are tied up in the progress of the subcontinent. But talk to any transporter and it will be apparent that only Zimbabwe is regarded as advanced enough to play a significant role in the growth of transport. However, with Zimbabwe's troubles continuing after the elections of June 2000, Afro-pessimism is on the rise, and let no one doubt the potential adverse impact of this on investor confidence.

Ideals are one thing, realities are another. The impact of Afro-pessimism has been felt in transport throughout east and central Africa, and has hurt Malawi too.

The British bus company, Stagecoach Holdings plc, pulled out of Malawi in 1998 and followed a year later by withdrawing its investments from Kenya, citing losses due to "bad years" in these developing countries. Company sources also said they were incurring costs running into millions of US dollars for repairs to their fleets of buses, 60% of which was related to damage to the vehicles by potholed city roads.

Our bet is that this company kept its spares arranged neatly on shelves in the store. Our other bet is that its place has been taken by companies which sort their spares out on tarpaulins under the shade of Brachystegia trees. It's part of the African way.

That said, one must also concede that if the Renaissance vision of economic development in sub-Saharan Africa is to be realised, countries like Malawi, Tanzania, Zambia and Mozambique are going to have to become more attractive to investors. What they share now - and indeed project to the outside world - is equal desperation: living standards overall have declined since the heady days of independence. Then there is the legacy of wars and continuing violence in the region, charted by FleetWatch in the past year.

So where is the hope, if any? Strange to say, voices of reason in the region are saying there is hope. Speaking at a conference on economic synergies in Canberra, Australia during March this year, Dr John Stewart, mining consultant to the SA Chamber of Mines, noted that the SADC region has a "significant" infrastructure including good roads. He added that road linkages between Mozambique, Malawi and Tanzania would help the region to create new development zones.

In the case of Malawi, a "development corridor" running from the capital city of Lilongwe, through Blantyre, across northern Mozambique to Nampula and the port of Nacala is envisaged by the SADC. Malawi's economy depends largely on tobacco and tea exports, with a smaller sugar cane sector. There are hardly any minerals of value, with the exception of bauxite and monazite, and just some potential for marble mining.

Cross-border transport opportunities are limited to imports of fuel, agrochemicals and exports of produce. Most farmers and miners are merely subsisting on what they can scratch from the earth. The government is doing little to excite the enthusiasm of potential investors in larger and more productive operations; the country has no international brand recognition whatsoever - it simply does not feature on anyone's map of places wherein to invest money. This needs to change.

The route to enrichment would seem to lie in another direction: that of tourism. The lake, the mountains, game reserves and picturesque village life make up a highly appealing package. Since the freeing up of the country in 1994, the growth of hotels and services has begun to generate a local delivery sector, and is bringing overlander trucks, bus tours and airline support services into the country.

Malawi, like its neighbours, needs to realise that First World can be encouraged to see the Fourth World as a prime ecotourism destination. The wheels will roll when visitors come with dollars.

Southern Africa can go two ways, either up or down. Given this scenario, a country like Malawi can become a beacon for the region. Exaggeration? No! Not at all. I have mingled with the people in the villages, the markets and the towns and have felt the spirit that is driving this nation forward.

What we need is for some brave and daring investors to cast off their three-piece suits, put their shorts on and cycle along the roads - as I did. Perhaps then, they too will feel the enterprising spirit of the Malawians and thereby get a better grasp of what Africa is truly about.

They would certainly get a truer picture than the one they get when they dial into the Internet from their First World offices. The Internet may show pictures of the people but it doesn't convey the spirit of the people. And the spirit of Africa is the essence and hope of Africa.

In Malawi's case, the Nacala Development Corridor is already underway. Another route to enrichment would seem to lie in tourism. The lake, the mountains, game reserves and picturesque village life make up a highly appealing package. Malawi, like its neighbours, needs to realise that First World can be encouraged to see the Fourth World as a prime ecotourism destination. The wheels will roll faster when visitors come with dollars.