The Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) is investigating Zamm Investments, makers of Cool Drop Bottled Natural Mineral water for potential prosecution.
This action comes after the Competition and Fair Trading Commission (CFTC) recommended it, citing the company’s breach of supplying products that could harm consumers’ health and engaging in unfair trade practices.
Last August, the CFTC reported to the DPP that Zamm Investments should face charges for violating Sections 43(1)(e) and 43(1)(g) of the Competition and Fair Trading Act (CFTA).
In an interview with The Atlas Malawi, Ministry of Justice public relations officer Frank Namangale confirmed the move.
“We received the report. The DPP has sent the report to other agencies to undertake criminal investigations. Thus collecting the pieces of evidence and tracing witnesses needed,” he said, without indicating as to when the investigations will be concluded.
CFTC investigations followed complaints from MANAC Conference Centre located at Dowa, the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) and another person who opted to be anonymous that they purchased Cool Drop Natural Mineral Water which contained some white debris floating inside.
The Commission further issued an advisory note to the National Water Resource Authority (NWRA) and the Ministry of Water and Sanitation to conduct due diligence on water abstraction and proximity between the source of water like well, borehole and waste disposal tanks at production facility for ZAMM Investments.
In September last year, NWRA said that Zamm Investments has been operating without a permit to drill and abstract groundwater.
NWRA public relations officer Masozi Kasambala said the Authority had advised ZAMM Investment to apply for the permit.
“The advisory note by the Commission fully coincides with current nationwide inspections of Water Abstraction Points, where the checklist includes distance from the source of contamination to the Abstraction points.
“Our team of inspectors accompanied by lab technicians have been on the ground in a quest to get to the bottom of the matter. Once water quality test results plus other inspection targets are ready, they will be shared with the public and depending on the results, the Authority will make its position known.
“Authority has always been alert to matters of water resources management and regulation. The fact that the ZAMM Investments matter has seen a different stakeholder being a whistle-blower must not be misconstrued to suggest the opposite. These institutions normally work in partnership with each other based on the issue at hand,” he said
However, he did not give an update as we went to press.
Last week, CFTC warned the general public against buying and consuming some batches of some batches of Cool Drop Bottled Natural Mineral water manufactured by Zamm investments because they do not meet the stipulated Malawi Standards.
According to statement signed by CFTC executive director Lloyds Vincent Nkhoma, the said batches are numbers BTH277, BTH016, BTH253, BTH018 and BTH291, which have visible foreign sediments inside the sealed water bottles.
“According to findings by the Malawi Bureau of Standards (MBS), delay in changing of filters and membranes by the producer resulted in the contamination of the bottled water resulting in the presence of visible foreign objects in the aforementioned batches. This finding is in serious contravention of the MBS Act and the applicable Malawi mandatory standard MS 560:2004.
“This finding is also in violation of Section 43(1)(e) the Competition and Fair Trading Act (CFTA) which states that a person shall not, in relation to a consumer supply any product which is likely to cause injury to health or physical harm to consumers, when properly used, or which does not comply with a consumer safety standard which has been prescribed under any written law.
“In view of the above, CFTC would like to inform traders not to sell the subject batches of the product, if they have them in stock. CFTC is also advising consumers to take necessary precaution not to purchase or consume the said batches of the product,” reads part of the statement released Tuesday
Zamm Investments responded that they have fixed the technical fault which led to the supply of the contaminated water and that the batches that were sup[lied to the market have been recalled.
