VIEWPOINT

IF you thought Malawians were lazy and that is why we are poor think twice. Generally speaking Malawians are honest and hardworking people who are taken advantage of by a corrupt few and when those in power do nothing about it, the whole society suffers.
 
Malawi doesn’t produce anything of substance; not even a football player to export to England! But Malawians try to make something out of their situation. Every day, hundreds travel to South Africa to buy products for sale back here at home. They bring things which ourselves should have been able to make in the first place.

Before you can travel, you need a passport. But to get one, it’s not easy. Immigration officials have so many stories they tell clients on the delays of their passports. If you are willing to pay more or rather buy the official, your passport is ready within minutes: money talks, bullshit walks!

While travelling by bus, if one’s passport doesn’t show that the holder has $5000 or R3000, there’s a R50 penalty. Bus operators demand MK1000.00 from every passenger as boarder fees. If you don’t have money, they will demand a phone or any item they want. No receipts are given for all these transactions. We know that some of the bus operators are foreign, but all the same it's corruption within our borders.

Upon return from wherever you went, whether you travelled by road or air, you have to bribe someone to clear your goods.

Immigration, police and tax officials exploit hardworking people. One can’t say seniors don’t know what their juniors do. We see senior officials getting richer. They drive expensive cars, live luxuriously through ‘kukama ng'ombe yoonda’(corruption).

Malawi Freedom Network would like to implore the new government of President Joyce Banda to show us that indeed this is a new era. The Anti-Corruption Bureau must get to work to help rid our country of this cancer that’s killing all of us.

The author is the Regional Coordinator for the South, Malawi Freedom Network. ©2012 The Maravi Post. Reproduction authorised, with usual acknowledgment