Govt’s Kalumo problem grows
Demands by some staff in the Department of Immigration and Citizenship Services for the removal of director general Charles Kalumo are finally getting government’s attention.
In a written response on Monday after days of avoiding the issue, Minister of Information and Digitisation Moses Kunkuyu said at the moment the Ministry of Homeland Security was yet to revert on the way forward after some staff raised concerns against their boss last week, but there is movement on the matter.
Said the official government spokesperson: “The ministry will address the issue, but as of now they have not yet given a response.”
Ministry of Homeland Security Principal Secretary for administration Erica Maganga on Monday referred The Nation to Principal Secretary Steven Kayuni who, however, did not respond to our phone calls and questionnaires.
About 300 Immigration staff across the country have threatened to shut down their offices, including at airports and land border posts if government fails to fire Kalumo by tomorrow.
The staff said they made the resolution during a meeting held last week at the Immigration headquarters in Blantyre.
One of the senior officers who attended the meeting accused Kalumo of destabilising the department’s hierarchy through unjustified changes.
The concerned staff’s spokesperson Charles Chisi said in an interview on Monday the workers expect the issue to be addressed without the strike.
“Immigration is a disciplined department. We hope government will respond positively to our demands within the agreed period of 10 days to avert the planned industrial action,” he said.
The concerned Immigration officers on Monday last week gave Kalumo 10 days to resign over allegations of a tyrannical administration and unfair interdictions.
A team sent to represent the disgruntled staff on Monday evening presented a petition to government through Maganga, who is said to have promised to act within the stipulated period, according to Chisi.
He said the staff want Kalumo to be removed for allegedly verbally suspending several officers without according them the right to be heard.
Efforts to speak to Kalumo over the allegations proved futile as his phone went unanswered despite several attempts.
Early last month, a group of passport-seekers petitioned President Lazarus Chakwera to fire Minister of Homeland Security Ken Zikhale Ng’oma and Kalumo within 15 days for allegedly failing the nation.
Meanwhile, Human Rights Defenders Coalition (HRDC) has asked the President to address the crisis rocking the department, including removing Kalumo.
In a statement dated June 2 2024 co-signed by HRDC chairperson Gift Trapence and national coordinator Kelvin Chirwa also implores Chakwera to terminate the passport issuing contract with local firm E-Tech Systems and facilitate an open tender process for passport printing.
Malawi is reeling under a passport production crisis that has left Immigration with a passports application backlog of 35 000 against a printing capacity of about 500 booklets a day.
The country has experienced passport issuance challenges ever since Attorney General Thabo Chakaka Nyirenda in December 2021 cancelled a $60.8 million (about K103.3 billion) Techno Brain contract due to alleged poor handling of the contract.
