Multichoice Malawi court trouble over subscription fee

While Multichoice Malawi general manager Steven Knight attributed the sky-rocketing subscription fluctuation to the Malawi Kwacha currency devaluation, CAMA executive director John Kapito has described the scenario as illegal and unfair.

Knight told a local daily last week that rising subscription fees are due to the fluctuations in the exchange rate of the US dollar to the Malawi Kwacha.

“We have not increased subscription fees. It's still at US$63,” said Knight.

This explanation has landed Multichoice Malawi in trouble as the Central Bank has also condemned the company for transacting in foreign currency describing it as illegal.

This has received the backing of CAMA, which has since suggested to Multichoice to be publishing daily subscription rates in newspapers or on their channels in the same way banks do with exchange rate.

“They can't just ambush subscribers with new rates even if they charge in dollars,” said Kapito.

Currently, Malawian subscribers are paying K10,070 for full bouquet when they were paying K9,300 in October 2009 before it went up again in November to K9,700.