Minimum wages: Chickens come home to roost

 So, Nation Publications Limited (NPL) now has the last laugh. Those who love to hear the truth are cordially invited to laugh with us. But I do not think I am the best person to be bragging about NPL’s credibility. The media house’ works speak for itself. You disparage the organization for what it does at your own peril. Truth always has a way of disabusing you if you choose to misrepresent it and sometimes in a very humbling manner. This seems to be the case with a recent story The Nation published which stated that the Malawi Government had approved new minimum wage rates.

On January 18 2024, the media house published in all its platforms—the hard copy, Nationonline, Facebook, Twitter, You Tube, Instagram, eNation—that the Malawi Government had approved new minimum wage rates for general workers which showed an 80 percent increase fromK50 000 to K90 000 per month.

The publications went on to say that in a communication it had seen but was yet to be published in the Malawi Government Gazette, the approval means that the general minimum wage has gone up from K1 923.08 per day or K50 000monthly to K3 461.54 per day or K90 000 per month.

“However, for domestic workers, the minimum wage is now pegged at K2 000 per day fromK1 461.54 per day or K38 000 per month, an increase of 38 percent.

“At this rate, the general minimum hike is K20 000 less than what the Malawi Congress of Trade Union (MCTU) proposed and K3 000 less than what Employers’ Consultative Association of Malawi (ECAM) suggested.”

Not any other senior government official, not a principal secretary but the head of all public servants in Malawi—Secretary to the President and Cabinet (SPC) Collin Zamba—went on a field day disparaging NPL for allegedly telling lies in the story.

Zamba used a certain media house (I don’t want media wars so I will

Today, these so-called lies must be embarrassingly flying in her face. On Wednesday this week, the Malawi Government Gazette published the new minimum wage rates. And voila, nothing that NPL published on the new rates was incorrect. The Nation cooked up anything. Truth be told, it is Zamba herself who was either misinformed or blatantly ignorant about happenings in the institution she is supposed to be presiding over.

My understanding is that as SPC, she should have had an idea of what was cooking in her kitchen on the minimum wages. And that if she were truly on top of her job, she would have known that sooner rather than later, the Malawi Government Gazette would lay bare the truth and therefore she did not have to throw mud at some intelligent journalist who had unearthed the information on minimum wages for the consumption of the nation. For where is the sense in rubbishing a story today only to swallow humble pie a few days later as Zamba must have done by now because she stood on the leeward of truth? This is what happens when you are not on top of things as a leader. Your communication with your colleagues leaves much to be desired. Here is a whole Ministry (of Labour) which has prepared a document to be published in the Malawi Government Gazette to make its content official. But a whole SPC has no clue on what is in the offing. And instead of first checking with the line ministry so that she is on the same page with everybody else, she is all out spewing vitriol left, right and centre. Now the chickens have now come home to roost.