Bineth Trust employees protest lack of pay
Employees of former president the late Bingu wa Mutharika’s Bineth Trust on Wednesday converged on the offices of lawyer Kalekeni Kaphale in Blantyre to protest their lack of pay for four months.
In the course of the vigil at the lawyer’s offices, one of the employees received a telephone call from her house, informing her that electricity supply to Bineth Trust headquarters in Limbe had just been disconnected.
About 31 employees from Ndata Farm in Thyolo were seen seated at the lawyer’s offices from 10am. They said they would remain at the premises until they were given a concrete answer to their grievances.
Bineth Trust is part of Mutharika’s decseased estate whose bank accounts were frozen. However, the court later unfroze the bank accounts.
A representative of the workers, Bagnett Maganga, said the employees have persevered without salaries, but had now reached breaking point because they were failing to pay for their children’s school fees and house rent, and buy food.
He said the grouping comprised security officers, farm workers, filling station attendants and drivers.
Said Maganga: “We have been addressed by our lawyers before and promised that things would be sorted out. Nothing is happening and we decided to camp here for as long as it takes until we hear something, preferably from government.
“We are told that the government side is the one meant to respond to our grievances after our lawyers contacted them. There are about 95 of us left at the farm and we are here to represent them.”
Another worker, speaking on condition of anonymity, said workers from other farms in Mitundu in Lilongwe, Nsanje, Salima and Kasungu too had gone without pay for months.
She said they could not come for the camp because of financial constraints, hence delegated their colleagues in Thyolo since it was near to Blantyre.
The woman said the trust has over 1 000 employees. She also said trustees have addressed the employees with only assurances given that things will improve.
Kaphale, who is one of the interim administrators of Bingu’s deceased estate representing the late Mutharika’s children, was not available for comment on Wednesday.
