Muluzi, PCL yet to agree on Metro bill

by DANIEL NYIRENDA08:16:38 - 09 April 2008

Former president Bakili Muluzi and Press Corporation Limited (PCL) are yet to agree on the bill that Muluzi has to pay following his controversial shopping spree at Metro Shop in Blantyre last Wednesday.Reports say the opposition UDF chairman settled on a K7 million bill after a stock take that was carried out when the shop closed for two days last week, but PCL declined to state their position on the bill in response to our questionnaire Tuesday .“The matter will be resolved after the verification exercise and when the two parties engage following that verification,” PCL Group Operations Executive (Trade) Pius Mulipa said.PCL last week disclosed that Muluzi incurred a bill of K21 million at Metro Shop following his lunch hour shopping binge at the departmental store, where he told people to pick goods on his account.However, Muluzi was shocked with the bill, believing it was on the higher side and this led to a verification exercise between the two parties.UDF Deputy Secretary General Hophmally Makande, one of the party officials who was at the shop during Muluzi’s shopping spree and the following stock take, declined to comment on the bill on Monday.Metro Shop owners, PCL, are registered on the Malawi and London Stock Exchanges. Asked what the group would do in the event that Muluzi does not pay the bill, Mulipa said: “The PTC Group will do what it needs to do to protect shareholders’ interests.”PCL said they lost business for conducting an unscheduled stocktaking to find the validity of the sales following Muluzi’s contention against the K21 million bill. But PCL have declined to state how much they lost in the process.When Muluzi went to Metro shop, he told all the shoppers to each pick two loaves of bread, cooking oil and two packets of sugar on his account.Apparently, the prescription came after Muluzi noted that some people, who got wind of his impending visit to the shop, had already picked mattresses, bicycles and other electric appliances waiting for him to pay.However, the generosity ended in chaotic scenes as customers stampeded to benefit from the offer while pickpockets took advantage of the situation and snatched goods from innocent shoppers.