To build the Malawi we want, start with the way we treat teachers

Malawi News Hardtalk Interview by Rebecca Chimjeka (6th March, 2021)

RC: In your view are the teachers justified to demand risk allowances during the covid-19 pandemic?

SS: The teachers' strike brings into sharp relief difficult dilemmas from both sides, and calls for our best thinking for what is good for the education system, and for the country, in the long term. From the teachers’ side, one needs to appreciate the decades of official neglect, insignificance and undermining of the profession teachers have endured. As civil servants, teachers view their benefits, their public image and their noble role, in comparison to other civil servants. The differences are stark. Teachers see what is happening to public finances, in particular funds meant for fighting covid-19, and see their names implicated when they have not partaken in the plunder. Teachers are sharply aware of the unfairness, the elite ridicule, and what they see as the government’s inconsiderate attitude.

On the government’s side, the worry is understandably on the effect of any decisions on the public purse, the precedence this sets for other sectors, and the fate of millions of children. These are valid and genuine worries.

There is differential treatment towards the teachers in terms of how risk allowances are being allocated and how personal protection equipment (PPE) is being distributed. Teachers were told they would have to make their own masks, and were given training. Yet expenditure reports indicated that teachers were given masks. Most of the equipment and funds they received were inadequate, yet expenditure reports were bloated with false figures. Whether teachers are justified or not in striking needs to be understood in that context.

RC: Do you think Government is handling the sit in by teachers properly?

SS: Seen from the public gallery, Government seems to be taking the teachers for granted. It is rather curious that recommendations for risk allowances made by the education covid-19 task force in July 2020 were conveniently ignored and no explanation was provided. We are getting reports that in the crisis meetings that have been happening this week, the issue of allowances is being evaded and avoided. It makes one question whether government is negotiating in good faith.

RC: If one were to say it's morally wrong for teachers who were at home for 3 months on full pay, to now demand allowances from Government just when they have been told to go back to work, what will be your comment?

SS: What is morally wrong is to treat teachers as second class civil servants and to ignore their pleas for fairness and equality in how they are treated. The demand for allowances is not coming out of nowhere. It is coming from a perception of perennial persecution and insignificance, and a history of occupational invisibility. One wishes teachers did not choose this awkward, sensitive moment to stage the strike, given everything that has happened with covid-19 since March 2020. But truth be told, we need to be empathetic towards the teachers’ struggle for fairness and equality. There is virtue in acknowledging mis-steps in handling an unprecedented crisis such as this pandemic, and taking concrete steps to correct things. If done in good faith and in appreciation of the plight teachers are in, most teachers are reasonable, understanding and patriotic.

RC: If Government was to bow down to their demands, do you think it will be sustainable and what economic consequences will this have for Malawi?

SS: We need to think in the long term. Teachers are the foundation the country needs to set itself on the path to inclusive, equitable wealth creation and self-reliance, as we have expressed in the new long term vision, Malawi 2063. Achieving that long term vision is crucially dependent on a teaching workforce that is highly motivated, highly educated, and attracts the best and brightest young Malawians. That type of teaching workforce would transform this country beyond any short term considerations, and would put the country on a path to long term sustainability and economic prosperity.

RC: Anything you want to add?

SS: Two things. First, the culture of allowances has been allowed to fester and to distort our work ethic and government’s obligations to improve remuneration in the civil service. What we are seeing today is a legacy of that problem. It is a welcome development that there is now a taskforce to study and review the public service procedures, including allowances.

Lastly, a lot of things need to change if we are to achieve our societal dreams and aspirations. We need to build a society that values hard work, integrity, ethical conduct, human dignity, fairness, equity and equality, compassion, resilience, self-reliance, trust in our capabilities, and hope for the future. To build such a society, it must start with the way we treat teachers, and it will transfer to the society at large. Teachers will be critical in inculcating these values into the young Malawians who will deliver the Malawi we want.

Note: A version of this interview appeared on the Hardtalk page of the Malawi News on Saturday, 6th March, 2021. 

Why we should brace ourselves for more cashgates

Regardless of what happens to President Joyce Banda in May 2014, she will go down in Malawi’s historical record as a president for whom lightning struck twice. The first time was on Saturday 7^th April when she was suddenly and unexpectedly thrust onto the stage as the fourth president of the Republic of Malawi. The second was on Friday 13^th September when the Malawi government’s Budget Director, Paul Mphwiyo, was shot and seriously wounded, prising open secrets of massive plunder of government cash that has been going on for years.

Bitter fruits of cashgate. Photo credit: Steve Sharra

The metaphor of lightning striking twice for Mrs Joyce Banda is apt here because on two occasions, she has been given the “reset” button to click and chart a new path for the nation. Historical legacies for presidents don’t take shape for several years, so it will be a while before we know whether Mrs Joyce Banda did click “reset” or not. But by the time we know, there may have been a few more cashgates. And here’s why.

In the Out of Turn column of Saturday 2^nd November, 2013, Malawi News “Guest Writer” laid out a five-point plan for how Malawi as a nation could move on from cashgate. The key argument from Guest Writer was that if we handled cashgate with wisdom and care, Malawi “could be corruption free” in the “next couple of years.” I have made optimism for Malawi, and for the continent my life philosophy (Afrika Aphukira), but it’s not for a simplistic feel-good factor. It takes a lot of energy, anger and yes, pessimism, to generate optimism for this country and for this continent. But it’s well worth the effort, in the end.

Guest Writer is a kindred spirit in sharing optimism. But s/he has set the bar a bit low. Guest writer is basing his/her optimism that Malawi could be corruption free on the fear of consequences if someone is caught. Fear of a law that works and a law enforcement that is efficient is indeed enough of a disincentive for a would-be offender. But the rich and powerful always find a way to make the law work for them. They make the law. They make it in such a way that they can get away with murder.

President Joyce Banda has been unequivocal in stressing that no one will be spared, and that includes her family and children, as she told members of the clergy recently. Personally, I want to believe her, but I also realise what a revolutionary act that would be. Were she to allow full justice to take its course, she would be the figurative embodiment of kadziwotche, the insect which flies too close to the fire and gets burned in the process. I would like to sample the percentage of Malawians who believe the president when she says no one will be spared. The pessimists have a solid history to draw from.

But it’s the question of root causes of why cashgate happened that ought to exercise the toughest sinews of our muscles. Thus far pundits have listed greed, a lack of patriotism, a faulty IFMIS, spiritual decay, the destruction of ethics in public service, the politicisation of the civil service, a thoughtless transition from dictatorship to democracy, and unethical politicians looking for campaign cash, as some of the reasons that led to cashgate.

In order to do a good job digging up the root causes, we need to distinguish two things. What aspects of cashgate are pure personal greed and nothing more? That’s one thing. What aspects of cashgate reveal an inability by our political parties to raise funds to keep parties on their feet and effectively participate in national elections? That’s another thing. Each problem has its own unique solution.

The greed is a manifestation of both social inequalities that have infested over decades, and a spirit of avarice in a society where material wealth is the ultimate pursuit. The resulting inequality has bred huge resentments among social classes. Social inequality thrives in capitalist systems where the class divide is enormous. This is true of Malawi as it is of many countries. The few tens of thousands of Malawians who are gainfully employed are stuck in jobs that have no career path. Workers have no hope that things will ever improve for them.

Those in managerial positions who discovered this truth quickly found a way around the problem. They accumulated privileges and benefits for themselves, and suddenly catapulted themselves into a whole new social class. Such benefits included huge salaries, free school fees for their children, ownership of houses in affluent suburbs, health care, and ownership of expensive cars that become personal property after a certain loan period. For groups who can’t accrue such benefits and perks for themselves, they watch all this and find their ways of fighting back.

The problem of fundraising for parties indeed goes back to the transition from dictatorship to democracy. This is a much less discussed topic in Malawian politics. But it could very well lie at the root of why cashgate happened, why it was not the first time, and why it will not be the last time. It seems Malawian political parties have no financial stability outside state coffers, a point made in a 3rd April 2012 article by Jimmy Kainja, and revealed in a number of studies.  

Kainja observed at the time that it was “no coincidence that in Malawi it is only a ruling party that always has resources to buy and distribute political party materials: t-shirts, party cloth, bicycles, etc.” A Global Integrity article of 13^th April 2012 hoped that the ascendancy of Joyce Banda to the presidency provided an opportunity for a fresh start in addressing problems of political corruption once and for all. In its May 2012 report titled Overview of corruption and anti-corruption in Malawi, Transparency International cited “patronage and clientelist networks” as feeding corruption in Malawi’s bureaucratic and political ranks.

Therein lie the two lightning strikes for President Joyce Banda. Social inequality is creating deep rifts among Malawians, a ticking time bomb. The increasing incidents of mass violence and vandalism we are witnessing across the country daily are but a tiny ripple in the sea of resentment resulting from this inequality. That is made more complicated by how our political parties have no established means of raising funds for their very survival, rendering the entire political arena a charade and a get-rich-quick scheme. Unless we address the fundamental causes of the deep inequality ripping Malawian society apart, we should brace ourselves for more cashgates. 

Note: A version of this article appears in the 'Guest Writer' column of The Malawi News of Saturday, 9th November, 2013.