Barely, days after arrogant Multichoice Africa announced cutting services to Malawi over a contested DStv tariff hike, it has been established that the latter owes Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (MACRA) MK19 million in unpaid licence fees.
MACRA has therefore demanded Multichoice Malawi to pay the fees before the complete closure of its services while asking the company to provide an exact date when it will shut down DStv services in Malawi.
This is contained in a letter dated August 10, 2023, which MACRA has written MultiChoice Malawi.
MACRA executive director Daud Suleman says MultiChoice should fulfill its licence obligations before completing DStv withdrawal.
According to Suleman, the South African company owes MACRA K19 million which should be paid to the regulatory authority in 30 days.
Suleman also wants MultiChoice to put in place measures that will assist customers who would have paid subscription fees beyond the shutdown date as well as to provide compensation to consumers for proprietary DStv equipment that will become obsolete after the shutdown.
He has also advised MultiChoice to ensure that DStv signals are not using Malawi spectrum after the shutdown day.
“You are further advised that once the voluntary revocation is completed, any broadcasting without an applicable license issued by the Authority is an offence under Section 187 of the Communications Act and that the Authority will not hesitate to take appropriate action against you in line with the Act,” reads part.
MultiChoice Africa Holdings withdrew DStv services in Malawi last week after MACRA blocked new DStv tariffs.
MACRA obtained an injunction against the decision to increase the tariffs.
Minister of Information Moses Kunkuyu said this week that government will intervene so that MultiChoice continues providing DStv services in Malawi.
Multichoice Malawi is yet to respond to MACRA’s request.-MaraviPost