During the last days of the former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) administration in 2012, government was accused of flip-flopping in its decision making. It was clear, and proved to be so, that the government was working under intense pressure from different stakeholders to deliver on its mandate.
Today, the second DPP administration and its organs are showing the same traits of instability in their decision making. Two reasons come out clearly as to why the government is panicking: It has failed in financial prudence and activity planning. A few examples will explain this.
First, the government expressed its determination to start charging user fees in district hospitals. This meant that people with financial muscle could access better services in our public hospitals at the district level while millions of struggling Malawians could be condemned to their early graves for merely being poor.
This decision rubbed some health rights activists the wrong way. They teamed up to persuade the government to rescind its decision. This column also dedicated space to that fight until inclusive consultations and research is done on the issue.
Just this week, the Minister of Health, Peter Kumpalume, said government never intended to introduce the user fees. Not surprisingly, Kumpalume blamed the activists and the media for blowing the issue out of proportion.
Secondly, government has announced that it is working on bringing back our young ladies who were trafficked to Kuwait in hope for better life. The ladies were duped that they would be paid dream salaries in the oil-rich country with prospects of investing back in Malawi.
When the media broke the story of the stranded Malawians, Foreign Affairs Minister, Francis Kasaila ruled out any possibility of government intervening to rescue the good ladies. Kasaila said such interventions were not budgeted for arguing that their families should shoulder the responsibility.
But a few days later, Labour Minister, Henry Mussa flew to Kuwait for talks with his counter-part to find means of bringing back our “girls”. Even Foreign Affairs spokesperson, Rejoice Shumba, has confirmed that government is working on bringing back our girls.
Then there is the issue of retired health workers who are operating on contract basis. Government has said it will not renew contracts for 300 health workers who have bailed the health system on month-to-month arrangement for ages.
We all know that government resorted to hiring retired health workers and teachers because there were gaps in human resources in the affected sectors. This was engendered by reluctance on the part of new graduates to serve in areas that are at the back of the beyond. Young, energetic and ambitious civil servants want to work in areas where there are elements of civilization such as electricity, potable water and trading centres.
The other reason was that the systems were not churning out enough graduates to fill up the vacancies that existed in the sectors. The only way out for government was to invite the retired workers to offer their expertise.
The factors that forced government to recall the retirees are still there. One only hopes that by off-loading 300 health practitioners, government will not bring back the challenges that the sector faced.
The last and probably most embarrassing decision is that of Lilongwe Water Board (LWB) which is on its knees as far as service delivery is concerned.
All along, government has refused to allow city residents to drill boreholes in their backyards. The restriction was based on a number of considerations which included sanitation. Today LWB, which is mandated to provide potable piped water, has decided to take Malawians back to the medieval era by abdicating from its responsibility and resorting to sinking boreholes for residents to access water.
This decision comes in the wake of the United Nations championed Millenium Development Goals (MDGs) and their extended version of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which among other issues aim to give residents access to safe water. The decision is also a mockery to the public service reform programmes that Malawi is implementing.
Just a week ago, LWB placed a very funny advert in the papers, calling on Lilongwe City residents to stop washing their cars and watering their flowers. LWB claimed that its system could not sustain supply to the residents if they were busy wasting water on washing their cars.
LWB also warned Malawians who are contributing to the fight against food shortage, through irrigation farming along the Lilongwe River, to stop the practice or risk penalties.
While the threats and decisions by LWB might look plausible on paper, they also beg a few questions. It becomes questionable if at all LWB, just like the central government, plans its activities. The Meteorology Department had warned us that there would be inadequate rainfall. The aim of the weather alerts was to give heads-up to interested parties.
For LWB to treat failure to plan, on its part, as an emergency is being very unfair to the residents.
While residents can be happy that the government listens to their protest, the flip-flopping shows indecisiveness and lack of proper planning. It does not dove-tail with government’s efforts to project a picture that it is on top of the heap.
It would be very irresponsible for any father to ask his family members to use lights and water sparingly while he comes home drunk every evening. This flip-flopping must stop.
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