By Joel Phiri & Justice Kawonga
Vice President Dr. Michael Usi has said the country has failed to register remarkable strides in development despite changing ruling political parties because it faces manifesto implementation challenges.
Usi observation that the situation has been as such largely due to laziness of some civil servants and sabotage of the civil service by a section of people who want to get back into power.
He said dismissing lazy and underperforming civil servants holds the key to invigorating performance of Malawi Civil Service which will in turn help improve service delivery at different levels.
Speaking on Thursday at Mzimba Boma during a whistle-stop tour, Usi said for a long time people have blamed various governments for the country’s underdevelopment forgetting that manifestos of various political parties that have taken turn to govern Malawi are all good but there is a human element that is suffocating development of the nation.
“Manifestos of the United Democratic Front is good to develop Malawi so is that of the Democratic Progressive Party, People’s Party, UTM, Odya Zake Alibe Mlandu and Malawi Congress Party. All the manifestos of these political parties are good enough to develop Malawi but the major problem is implementation of those manifestos,” said Usi.
He said despite all ruling parties developing robust manifestos to propel Malawi forward they have all failed.
“It’s not more about political parties’ manifestos that this nation is failing to develop. There are three elements to Malawi’s underdevelopment. These are lazy civil servants, corrupt and thieves in government and also foreigners who indulge in corrupt and sleazy deals. We need to deal with these three categories if we are to develop our nation,” he said.
Usi said once his Odya Zake Alibe Mlandu Party is voted into power on September 16, 2025, he will fire all lazy civil servants, have all corrupt people in government arrested and deport all foreigners involved in dubious dealings.
“We fail to develop because of such elements and once our party get voted into government through the forthcoming September 16 General Elections, we will come hard on all lazy civil servants.
“We can only rejuvenate our civil service for it to start performing better by firing all those that are lazy. If we fire lazy workers others will be scared to be lazy and will start working hard. And that’s why we need to reorganize our civil service to improve service delivery,” said Usi.
The Veep also said economic challenges Malawians are grappling with are not exclusive to Malawi only, saying the global world is equally facing economic problems.
“We should not blame one another for the tough economic challenges. They are all over but the question that you must ask is what we as your leaders are doing to help improve the situation for the better,” said Usi.
He, therefore, appealed to people to vote for trustworthy leaders who can deliver and not to be overtaken by sugar coated promises from political leaders.
“Look for leaders that are capable of delivering developments. Don’t be swayed by sweet talks uttered by political leaders. Look for what they have done to Malawi,’’ said Usi.
Among other people who spoke during the whistle-stop tour asked the vice president for better roads around Mzimba Boma, which they said, are in bad state. They also asked for loans for various businesses and also for Affordable Input Programme fertilizer.
