It was a dash of good tonic to hear President Peter Mutharika coming out in the open to admit that ward councillors, who are supposed to be representatives of the people at local level, are standing in the way of development.
The President acknowledged that the councillors award themselves contracts that need expert knowledge which is way above them and squander the money while delivering sub-standard work. Mutharika cited poor road works in Mzuzu City where he said councillors have messed up projects.
But I also wish to draw the President’s attention away from Mzuzu City which is dominated by opposition People’s Party councillors. Some Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) councillors in the Southern Region are busy scuttling the President’s ship.
In Chiradzulu, for instance, which is a stronghold of the DPP, 10 DPP councillors—all male— have ganged up against a young but professional woman, District Commissioner Memory Kaleso as a way of forcing her to allow them to steal from the public purse.
These DPP councillors want to be chauffer driven to functions and to be given allowances for attending a function at PIM right in the district. Obviously, one of them stays just a few metres away from PIM Mission but he still wants to be paid for attending the celebration of Rev John Chilembwe’s life. They also want to be paid for their presence whenever senior DPP Cabinet ministers from the district:—Emmanuel Fabiano, Henry Mussa and Joseph Mwanamvekha—visit their wards.
Sadly, these councillors have been allowed latitude to express their madness by shutting down the DC’s office and threatening to deal with this helpless young woman. Then there is the DPP district governor for Chiradzulu who also wants Kaleso out simply because she did not pay a courtesy call to him when she arrived in the district.
One wonders if at all these ignorant councillors know that the DC is the head of government administration representing the President at that level. It is also doubtful whether these overzealous councillors and their governor know that the world appointed Mutharika to champion gender issues through the He-for-She campaign. Do these petty thieves know that their conduct is embarrassing the President and not promoting the DPP as they believe?
Surprisingly, the government wants to seek legal opinion from the Attorney General on how to deal with these thieves. This is contrary to what Secretary for Local Government, Kiswell Dakamau, said that the Local Government Act mandates his ministry to dissolve a council that misbehaves. Did Dakamau touch on some political raw nerve?
But what would the government benefit by protecting these rascals who play in the hands of Mutharika’s critics who say that the President is undecided on critical matters? The world is watching as ruling party councillors harass a helpless young woman who is busy making sure that Mutharika’s administration delivers to the majority poor.
Do these thieves, masquerading as politicians, understand that the government spent millions of kwacha preparing the young woman, in public university, for her current role while they were busy hunting ngwime and zitchetche in Chisombezi River?
Surprisingly, the three Cabinet ministers have not shown any interest in reigning in these ruffians, some of whom served as their campaign managers and feel entitled to dip their dirty fingers in the public coffers. What with this new philosophy that the Attorney General must interpret the law before these thugs are taken to book? One would have expected the police or the ACB to round up these councillors and let them defend themselves at the magistrate’s court instead of negotiating with them on whether they should be arrested or handcuffed?
Malawians expect the President to make good of his threats by allowing the police or the ACB to do their work. This impunity is what has dragged the country backward in its quest to develop. If the President can deal with Cabinet ministers he spent the time with in a police holding cell at Lumbadzi, who is a councillor from Chiradzulu, my impoverished district that does not even have a filling station, despite leading in the fight for the country’s self-rule? They deserve to be a lesson to would-be offenders!
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