Review mayors’ qualifications

Ward councillors form the core of local government as envisaged by the National Decentralisation Policy of 2008.

Their role in the country’s development and Malawi’s democratisation cannot be overestimated. They are the pillars of the decentralisation process popularised as Mphamvu ku Anthu—power to the people.

In city councils, some councillors elected as mayors have transformed their territories and the well-being of the residents through improved service delivery, including sanitation and landscaping.

Elsewhere, the mayoral position is a litmus test for assessing a councillors leadership capabilities.

Simply put, it is at the local councils that potential leaders are tested if they can become presidents or prime ministers as did Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Phillipines’ Rodrigo Duterte and Britain’s Boris Johnson.

This testifies to the great importance some developing and developed nations attach to the position that every councillor can occupy in Malawi.

Ideally, there must be a strict criteria or eligibility test for the position and this should include candidates’ professional stature.

It is, therefore, surprising that every Jim and Jane in Malawi can become a mayor provided they are councillors holding a National ID.

This is one of the reasons why our cities and districts have thrown standards to the dogs.

How do you expect and entrust someone who does not understand an organisational strategy and the Malawi 2063 national agenda to make strategic decisions for the country’s economic hubs?

Section 27 of the Local Government Election Act says a person shall not be qualified to be nominated or elected as a councillor unless they are aged at least 21 years and speak and read the English language well enough to participate in council proceedings.

However, the latter requirement is a much-ignored law.

However, English proficiency is a must because the role of mayors and deputies include opening high profile conferences and hosting foreign dignitaries, including heads of State to sign visitors’ book.

They also travel extensively both within and outside the country in exchange visits with other cities.

How do we expect semi-literate mayors to learn from other cities and implement the best practices they acquire on the move?

We need to set high standards and criteria for the position which constitute the face of our cities.

Mayors constantly enjoy media spotlight, which may subject our country to monumental disgrace unless they are elected wisely.

The country needs to keep pace with the changing times and demands.

There is a need to adopt and implement a deliberate policy to ensure such positions are occupied by people with sound academic and professional background, say a minimum of a first degree for the mayor or a diploma for deputies.

The municipality and district councils are no exception as the media constantly keeps an eye on their activities and leadership.

Last year, some councillors threatened to seal district commissioners’ offices in protest of some alleged maladministration, which derail councils’ development agenda and exposes a low understanding of the policies and guidelines governing their councils.

It is high time we started doing our things in line with the shifting trends rather than dancing to colonial hangovers introduced due to lack of educated Malawians at the birth of our nationhood.

Gone are the days the recruitment procedures in the government allowed school dropouts to join the civil service as clerks with a mere Junior Certificate of Education.

This system has since been abolished, so the eligibility test for political offices, including councillors and mayors, should not be surpassed by the shifting trends.