MBC staff demonstrate

MBC employees, who were either dismissed or redeployed, on Monday held a peaceful demonstration within the broadcasting house premises in Blantyre to force management to pay them their July salary.

The protesters were chanting songs depicting the difficult financial situations they are in because of the delayed pay.

The protesters’ spokesperson Richard Bande claimed in an interview they had not received the July salary despite government indicating that the Malawi Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) should pay them.

“All we were told is that we were not included in the July budget by the management and this is an injustice to us because it is government that directed that we be paid our July salaries,” said Bande.

He said a letter from the Treasury dated July 16 2012 and signed by Goodluck Chaphulika advised MBC management to pay the retrenched workers from the corporation’s 2012/13 budgetary allocation.

He said they demonstrated following an expiry of an ultimatum of August 9 2012 they gave management.

Efforts to talk to management proved futile as it was reportedly meeting.