Demand delivery,citizenry dared

Bishop Martin Mtumbuka of the Karonga Diocese of the Catholic Church and governance experts have challenged citizens to stop massaging politicians and government in general, but instead demand delivery to improve living standards.

Mtumbuka expressed the sentiments during a Silver Jubilee Mass for Father Albert Chirambo at Lundu Outstation in Rumphi on September 11 while the commentators made their position in their reactions to the issue in separate interviews with The Nation yesterday.

In his homily, the bishop expressed dismay that 58 years after attaining independence ,many expectant mothers were still dying on their way to hospitals due to poor access roads and the fact that they are mostly transported on improvised wooden stretchers. He said this was uncalled for and dehumanising.

Mtumbuka said: “Some expectant mothers die on their way to hospitals. Worse still, both expectant mothers and children are ferried on wooden stretchers. This cannot be accepted. We cannot keep quiet and I won’t keep quiet.

“As citizens, you must speak up, sit down and talk to your government. Tell the government that if you won’t fix our problems, we will vote for another person. Elections exist so that you can boot out those who have not developed your areas and uplifted your livelihoods.”

He also condemned the tendency to vote people into public office based on relationships, saying candidates should be voted based on ability to deliver.

Mtumbuka said: “It is worthless to be crying about things like bridges and roads yet when time for elections comes, you vote for the same people who have failed you simply because they have given you T-shirts or slaughtered a goat for you. It is utter nonsense.”

Speaking in an interview yesterday, governance analyst Makhumbo Munthali said the repealing of the Recall Provision under Section 64 of the Constitution, which empowered citizens to have non-performing legislators fired, was an assault on participatory democracy.

However, he said the electorate can use existing development structures such as Area Development Committees (ADCs) to engage duty-bearers and take them to task.

Munthali said: “The citizenry can also use ward councillors in the Full Council meetings to hold MPs [members of Parliament] accountable on their development pledges.

“Thirdly, the community can summon the MP through meetings to account for how he or she is using the given mandate.

“Equally important is the fact that the Constitution provides for the right to demonstrate, especially where dialogue fails. So, citizens can use demonstrations to call for the resignation of such MPs or to make public their grievances against the MP.”

On her part, Catholic University head of political science Chimwemwe Kandodo said civil society organisations, the academia and the church must ensure that the electorate know their responsibilities in holding duty-bearers to account.

“The electorate must know what the duties of legislators, councillors, the President even Cabinet ministers are. If they know, it will be easy for them to follow up with these leaders. At the moment, most of them do not know and it is difficult to demand from duty-bearers,” she said.

In a paper titled ‘Origins and Historical Development of the Constitution’, associate professor of law Mwiza Nkhata observes that the removal of the Recall Provision made government relax on accountability to the populace.

In March this year, Catholic bishops in the country denounced corruption and its agents that have kept the country poor and underdeveloped.

They described the present environment as dehuminising with the nation regressing in some areas.

In the conviction of authors of the original letter “who were courageous enough to stand up and call a spade a spade by naming what was contrary to the Gospel of Christ in our country”, the current bishops, including Mtumbuka, said it was with the same conviction as present leaders of faith that they prayerfully reflected on the current situation in the country asking whether “Is this the Malawi we all aspired to and dreamt of 30 years?”