Bishop Martin Mtumbuka of Karonga Diocese has criticised government for introducing a “chaotic” new traffic system which he said is subjecting Malawians to torture as if the country is at war.
Mtumbuka said the new system which he described as unacceptable, outrageous, shameful and terrible, reflects incompetence in the civil service. He also questioned the kind of education those who introduced the new system received. Mtumbuka said Malawi has never had a committed and efficient civil service after the founding president Kamuzu Banda’s era.
“How did those in government decide to introduce this chaotic policy that way? How can an educated man introduce a policy like that? How do you implement a policy with people queuing for weeks like refugees in Sudan? Why do you subject citizens to queues for weeks to get a government document as if the country is at war? Where in Germany or America do you find Germans or Americans queuing for weeks
to get government documents? This is an insult to Malawians,” said Mtumbuka.
The Bishop spoke his mind on Saturday when he presided over the ground-breaking ceremony for the construction of the diocese’s modern St Ignatius boys’ and girls’ Secondary School at Nthalire in Chitipa district. He said he did not want the school to produce incompetent people who would form incompetent civil service like the ones the country has had from Bakili Muluzi regime to date.
Mtumbuka was referring to the new cumbersome system that government has installed at Road Traffic Directorate called Malawi Traffic Information System (MaITIS) which is slow and subjecting people to stand in queues for weeks to get traffic documents such as licences and motor vehicle certificates of fitness.
Minister of Transport has always defended the new system that it was aimed at rooting out corruption and that some of his officers were deliberating frustrating it because the
corruption taps were closed.
But Mtumbuka said government did not do proper homework on the new system because innocent and poor citizens were subjected to torture as if the country was at war. The Bishop wondered where Malawians would find resources to sustain themselves in Mzuzu or Lilongwe or Blantyre cities as they queue for weeks to get the documents.
“Imagine somebody travels from Nthalire to Mzuzu to renew a licence and he has to queue for two weeks just to get that document. Where does he get money for accommodation for those weeks? Who pays for him? What about his work here in Nthalire? This policy is being implemented in a chaotic way. We are treating Malawians as if we are in Afghanistan. But we are not. This is incompetence and there is no better way of putting it. It is all pointing to inefficiency and corruption,” said Mtumbuka.
Mtumbuka also attacked government for introducing road rumble surface that stretches from one end of the road to another leaving no space for cyclists. He said such rumble surfaces were a torture to poor cyclists.
The new school would cost one million Euros (K504 million) for the first phase expected to finish in two years time.
Mtumbuka said his dream for the diocese is to have five modern community day and another five modern conventional secondary schools after 10 years of existence. He thanked Traditional Authority Nthalire for giving 52 hectares of land to the church for the construction of the school.
Education manager for the North Pauper Mkandawire commended the Diocese for investing in education. He said the school was the fourth school project initiated by the newly declared Diocese. Mkandawire promised to send teachers immediately after the completion of the school.
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