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Twenty-two members of Parliament from all the parties represented in the North yesterday forgot their differences and joined forces to tell President Bingu wa Mutharika in the face that he is sidelining the region when it comes to top civil service and diplomatic appointments.
In a charged atmosphere, the MPs wondered how more principal secretaries and diplomats are from the South where the President comes from.
“Of 37 PSs allocated to various ministries and departments, more than half are from the South. In addition to this, all the two chief secretaries come from the South. Within the Southern Region, there are some districts that have more than three PSs such as Thyolo, Zomba and Blantyre,” said the document read by Republican Party MP for Mzimba South Abbie Shawa.
The MPs said while 80 percent of the PSs come from one belt of Thyolo, Blantyre, Zomba and Mangochi, the whole Northern Region has only two PSs, in the vice president’s office and Department of Statutory Corporations.
He said few people from the North are in the middle management in government because of the unfair promotion systems, especially during the past 10 years.
“Priority for promotion into positions of decision-making was based on UDF party affiliation, region of origin and religious affiliation. And if a personnel audit was to be done now, one major finding would be that there are no persons or only a few from the North holding positions of P4 and above in such ministries of Health, Education, Information and OPC, among others,” said the MPs.
The also demanded an explanation from the President why out of 14 missions the country has, only two — Mozambique and Ethiopia — are headed by persons form the North and why parastatals are full of people from other regions.
“In parastatals, only one has a chief executive from the North and this is Northern Region Water Board. The same is true of the chains of boards of these organisations as only two are headed by persons from the North,” they said.
On development, the MPs pointed out that the North has the worst road network and Shire Buslines stopped to operate in most parts of the country, making communication a problem.
“While it is appreciated that Chikangawa road has eased transport problems for the North, it should be noted that it passes through areas where there are few people. And after 40 years the Karonga-Chitipa road has now been given priority in the current budget with funding from African Development Bank,” the letter added.
Other issues that were reported to the President were lack of schools and hospitals, unreliable and inefficient telecommunication and water and sanitation problems.
In his response, Mutharika pledged to look into their concerns but pointed out that when he was making such appointments, he was not looking at where one was coming from.
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