Until September 2013 when revelations of massive looting of public resources broke out, Benjamin Nkhata did not know that all the three democratic governments were being hypocritical on fiscal prudence.
Nkhata, who comes from Msaya Village in the area of Mlumuzana Kapopo Mhlanga in Mzimba, is even appalled that although UDF, DPP and PP governments have all preached the gospel of stringent fiscal policies, there was nothing on the ground to save public resources from abuse.
What baffles Nkhata most is that some of the people mentioned as possible culprits in the looting came kneeling down in 2009 begging the poor man for a vote, promising that they had joined politics to serve.
He said it was on this premise that he, along with other Malawians, gave politicians the authority to govern them.
“But instead of managing our resources, they have plundered them. And just like the Galatians before them, our politicians have let us down, and, therefore, need to be given a vote of no confidence,” said Nkhata.
He said there is the need for citizens to devise mechanisms for not only recovering the resources, but also earning a double compensation from them.
Nkhata based his arguments on Exodus 21:7-8, which says, “In case a man should give his fellow money or articles to keep, and it gets stolen from the man’s house, if the thief should be found, he is to make double compensation. If the thief should not be found, then the owner of the house must be brought near to the true God to see whether he did not put his hand upon the goods of his fellow.”
Reminded about the 2014 tripartite elections, Nkhata said he does not see the importance of queuing to cast the ballot again because voting has benefitted a few people in power while the poor continue to suffer.
But national programmes manager of the National Initiative for Civic Education (NICE) Trust, Grey Kalindekafe, warned that staying away from voting would give a ‘one-way’ ticket to looters to continue plundering public resources.
He said next year’s elections provide an invaluable opportunity for poor citizens to purge government and the political system of tricksters and looters.
“God has given voters authority to choose amongst themselves leaders who should serve; and, unless citizens assume this appointing authority, we will end up having bad leaders amongst us. As Jesus Christ emphasised in John 15:16, ‘our political leaders didn’t choose us, but we chose and appointed them to go and bear fruits.
“Therefore, the tripartite elections present us with yet another authority to purge our political system of all ineffective leaders to ensure performers only are remaining,” said Kalindekafe.
Leader of the Apostolic Faith Mission in Chiwembe Township in Blantyre, Pastor Nyson Kathumba, said Malawians should stop feeling guilty for appointing ineffective political leaders and public servants, saying God allowed them to hold their respective positions for a purpose.
Kathumba said through the cashgate scam and the arrests that have followed, God intends to right all his lost children “so that no one should perish.”
“It’s a spiritual breakthrough for politicians and public servants whose actions have caused deaths of innocent and taxpaying Malawians. Our culpable politicians and public servants should repent now or they will face God’s wrath,” he warned.
But Kathumba joined Nkhata in calling for the forfeiture of the looted resources, emphasising that the concerned officers will not be forgiven unless they willingly and sincerely return the loot.
“And funds permitting, they should follow the example of a biblical public servant Zacchaeus (Luke 19:8) who gave to the poor and restored fourfold what he extorted from people to demonstrate his conversion,” he said.
