People’s Tribunal

We are shamelessly a rationing country

 

(Mr Jonah Kapita of the Disgruntled Consumers Association is irked that the country service delivery system is not functioning and is making his submission before judge Mbadwa that the Mapuya administration)

Kapita: My Lord, it will not be an exaggeration to say that this country has gone to the dogs. Yes, to the dogs and don’t say I am being insensitive again because if it has not gone to the dogs how else would you describe the situation an average Malawians finds himself in nowadays?

My Lord, since Mapuya assumed the reins of power, his administration has drifted the country’s economy towards the precipice of failure so much so that we have been reduced to a rationing nation. Everything is being rationed in this country.

You get an impression that this administration is literary running on a low reserve of energy to keep going; hence, it is rationing everything to sustain itself until the next elections in 2019.

My Lord, who doesn’t know that Malawi is failing to generate enough power, forcing the utility supplier to subject consumers to unpleasant power outages as they ration the generated power.

But instead of improving, the situation is getting worse by the day. The rationing of water is well-documented as water boards, who were not futuristic in their thinking, fail to give households the water they demand.

Chatera Chiwuluke, a colleague who heads the Public Servants Union, will tell you, My Lord, that the current administration started rationing salaries long time ago. That explains why most civil servants, especially teachers, receive their pay on the 40th or 50th day of the month.

Treasury has also been rationing funding to various departments of government. They choose who to give funding and who to skip every month, yet when it comes to collection of taxes and non-tax revenue, there is no rationing. Is that fair?

My Lord, the health system is one defined by rationing. Drugs and even patients’ food is rationed with reckless abandon. Talking about food, My Lord, I think this government has gone too far with its rationing craze. It is rationing maize in Admarc depots, yet we bought a lot of maize from Zambia; where has it gone?

My Lord, you cannot run a country by rationing things. If the administration cannot find the way of keeping this country a float, why can’t they just declare that they are broke and cannot run it anymore and then close shop.

Judge Mbadwa: We have heard you Mr Kapita, but did you want this court to do in your submission?

Kapita: My Lord, I may be an activist but my reading of the law is very poor; hence, I thought you could fish out any charge that would be used against this administration. The one that usually comes to mind is conduct likely to cause breach of peace. Yes, the administration’s failure to tame the economy or to provide essential services to its people is a conduct that is likely to cause breach of peace. My Lord, the inefficiency would be costly to the country as dissatisfied people are prone to rioting; hence inviting anarchy.

Mbadwa: Following your reasoning, any charge can be applied in reining on the administration for its inadequacies. If you want, you can charge them with murder for being responsible for the deaths of Malawians who could not access medical drugs at public hospital; theft by trick for failing to fund essential services as promised in the budget, yet they still collect taxes with which they fund external and internal travel.

You can even use the rogue and vagabond or idleness and disorderly charge because the administration has displayed traits of idleness in the way it has handled the hunger issue. Instead of admitting that hunger is biting hard and suggesting ways of curbing it, the administration is busy instructing police officers to arrest officials derailing sale of maize when there is no maize in Admarc depots. Isn’t government being disorderly in not making rightful decisions? Well go back and choose one charge and this tribunal will make a ruling based on that formal charge. n

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