Court Clerk: All rise! The court of his Lordship Judge Mbadwa is now in session.
(The courtroom descends into dead silence)
Mbadwa: It is only a couple of weeks ago when this court heard a matter involving the Public Servants Union. Were you not satisfied with the determination this tribunal made Mr union president Chatera Chiwuluke?
Chiwuluke: My Lord, we were satisfied with the ruling that your lordship made. But we are here because this administration is putting us through more hardships on a daily basis. When they paid us on the 40th day of the month, exposing us to the wrath of landlords and landladies, it took this court’s intervention to save us from further embarrassment. But when we thought that our nightmare was over my Lord, we got a rude awakening.
Upon our return to work, my Lord, we were greeted by menacing dogs of security officers and bouncers who could not let us enter our offices.
In short my Lord the offices which this administration had rented for us were sealed for accumulated rentals that run in billions of kwacha. How and why somebody allowed that to happen nobody knows. You know it is very cold in July across the country. Why should a caring government expose its employees to pneumonia when it knows it is failing to supply public hospitals with drugs? Do you know what the dust of the capital city can do to one’s lungs? Maybe they want us to die so that they reduce the wagebill as they are already struggling to pay us.
You know this administration, like others before, has not done much in building new offices for its public servants, yet they have been employing people in droves. In fact, most of those who are occupying office space meant for us are cronies of this government; that of the lady president and her precursor, who infiltrated the system through the political appeasement syndrome that has now been instutionalised. We are, therefore, asking this court my Lord to let our members go on a holiday until it has built new offices for us.
Mbadwa: I will ask chief government secretary Joni Makandiwa to respond to the union president’s submission.
Makandiwa: My Lord, these employees have no mandate to dictate to us conditions under which they should work. Their job is to work; whether they work under a tree or not, it is none of their business. Respect of authorities’ orders as they assign one from time to time is a cardinal principle of the public service left by His Excellency Ngwazi Dr H Kamuzu Banda. They face dismissal if they are not willing to listen.
Mbadwa: After the administration of Ngwazi Kamuzu Banda, no other government has taken the issue of having proper office structures seriously. One administration was more interested in dredging a river to turn it into a sea instead of building offices and houses for civil servants. Another administration ruled by conducting rallies. A regime that did not last more than two years was synonymous with building villages through its Village Metamorphosis Initiative. I, therefore, order that the present administration should divert the money meant for its Cement and Iron sheets projects to building proper office structures for the public servants. Why is everyone interested in building villages? Who are you trying to fool? The disgruntled employees will also be granted their wish to go on an indefinite holiday until Makandiwa and his colleagues put his house in order. Case closed. n
