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President Bingu wa Mutharika has turned down an invitation to attend this year’s Labour Day celebrations which the Malawi Congress of Trade Union (MCTU) hoped to use as a stepping stone towards re-opening reconciliation talks between the Head of State and his predecessor Bakili Muluzi.
The MCTU invited Mutharika, Muluzi and Malawi Congress Party (MCP) president John Tembo to the main celebrations to be held at Kamuzu Stadium in Blantyre in an effort to bring the politicians closer to one another and re-open dialogue among them.
State House press officer Chikumbutso Mtumodzi confirmed yesterday that the President received the invitation but will not attend the function.
“The time of notice is too short, a sitting President and a former president ought to be treated differently. They derive different etiquette and respect befitting the two offices but the sitting President is supreme, hence the need to have stable and proper preparations,” said Mtumodzi.
He said the invitation letter came on April 24, 2007 but added the timing was wrong since a presidential function involves a cross-section of people and the preparations for that cannot be done in less than a week.
Mtumodzi, however, said the President has welcomed the initiative.
MCTU secretary-general Austin Kalimanjira said after the Public Affairs Committee (Pac) seems to have failed to reconcile Mutharika and Muluzi, they, as a labour movement, thought they could also play their part to find a solution.
“This function we hope would be the beginning of our efforts. We have decided to take this approach because we have been reading a lot about the wrangle [between the two leaders] in newspapers but now we want to have an understanding of the problem through direct interaction with the politicians themselves,” he said.
Kalimanjira said the response to the invitations would give MCTU a direction on how they can handle the mediation. He said after the celebrations, MCTU will make follow-ups on those who will not come and, thereafter, the labour body will meet the leaders separately.
Asked why he thinks MCTU can succeed when Pac is failing, Kalimanjira said people should not underrate the labour movement since it has been involved in such initiatives even at international level.
Muluzi on Thursday could not be drawn to comment on whether or not he would attend the function as his spokesperson Timpunza Mvula said he needed time to consult on the issue.
Tembo did not answer his phone when The Nation called him on Thursday. Party spokesperson Nicholas Dausi said Tembo was the only one to comment on the issue.
The local theme for this year’s Labour Day is: ‘Promoting Workers’ Nutrition in Combating HIV and Aids for Improved Productivity in Malawi’.
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