Usi on his whistlestop campaign tour of the North
* And largely due to laziness of some civil servants and sabotage of the civil service by a section of people who want to get back into power
* Dismissing lazy and underperforming civil servants holds the key to invigorating performance of Malawi civil service
By Joel Phiri & Justice Kawonga, MANA
State Vice-President Michael Usi contends that the country has failed to register remarkable strides in development despite changing ruling political parties because it faces manifesto implementation challenges — and largely due to laziness of some civil servants and sabotage of the civil service by a section of people who want to get back into power.
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Speaking on Thursday at Mzimba Boma during a election campaign whistle-stop tour, Usi maintained that dismissing lazy and underperforming civil servants holds the key to invigorating performance of Malawi civil service — which will in turn help improve service delivery at different levels.
He added that for a long time people have blamed various governments for the country’s underdevelopment forgetting that manifestos of various political parties, that have taken turn to govern Malawi, are all good but there is a human element that is suffocating development of the nation.
“Manifestos of the United Democratic Front is good to develop Malawi,” he said. “So is that of the Democratic Progressive Party, People’s Party, UTM, Odya Zake Alibe Mlandu and Malawi Congress Party.
“All the manifestos of these political parties are good enough to develop Malawi but the major problem is implementation of those manifestos.”
He further said despite all ruling parties developing robust manifestos to propel Malawi forward they have all failed: “It’s not more about political parties’ manifestos that this nation is failing to develop — there are three elements to Malawi’s underdevelopment.
“These are lazy civil servants, corrupt and thieves in government and also foreigners who indulge in corrupt and sleazy deals. We need to deal with these three categories if we are to develop our nation.”
Usi pledged that once his Odya Zake Alibe Mlandu Party is voted into power on September 16, he will fire all lazy civil servants, have all corrupt people in government arrested and to deport all foreigners involved in dubious dealings.
“We fail to develop because of such elements and once our party get voted into government through the forthcoming September 16 general elections, we will come hard on all lazy civil servants.
“We can only rejuvenate our civil service for it to start performing better by firing all those that are lazy. If we fire lazy workers, others will be scared to be lazy and will start working hard.
Malawi’s Capital Hill
“And that’s why we need to reorganise our civil service to improve service delivery,” said Usi, adding that the economic challenges Malawians are grappling with are not exclusive to Malawi only, saying the global world is equally facing economic problems.
“We should not blame one another for the tough economic challenges. They are all over but the question that you must ask is, what we as your leaders are doing to help improve the situation for the better.”
He, therefore, appealed to people to vote for trustworthy leaders who can deliver and not to be overtaken by sugar coated promises from political leaders, emphasising: “Look for leaders that are capable of delivering developments — don’t be swayed by sweet talks uttered by political leaders. Look for what they have done to Malawi.”
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Among other people who spoke during the whistle-stop tour asked the Veep for better roads around Mzimba Boma, which they said, are in bad state — and also asked for loans for various businesses as well as for Affordable Input Programme (AIP) fertilizer.
Michael Bizwick Usi collected his presidential election nomination paper on Monday, July 14 representing Odya Zake Alibe Mlandu Party to contest for the September 16 election, joining 17 others that include incumbent, Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera of the Malawi Congress Party (MCP); former Presidents, Arthur Peter Mutharika (Democratic Progressive Party-DPP) and Joyce Banda (People’s Party-PP).
Other party representatives are Kondwani Nankhumwa (People’s Development Party-PDP); Atupele Austin Muluzi (United Democratic Front-UDF); Frank Tumpale Mwenifumbo (National Development Party-NDP); Dalitso Kabambe (UTM); Kamuzu Walter Chibambo (People’s Transformation Party-Petra); David Mbewe (Liberation for Economic Freedom Party-LEFP); Cassim Chilumpha (Assembly for Democracy and Development-ADD); Anyamata, Atsikana, Azimayi-AAA); and Daniel Dube (National Patriotic Party-NPP).
They are five independent candidates so far — Adil James Chilungo; Akwame Bandawe; Rev. Hardwick Kaliya; Smart Swira and Cosmas Felix Chipojola.—Edited by Maravi Express
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