Who will bail out tobacco tenants?

BY WATIPASO MZUNGU JNR

 



  A tobacco tenant (middle) with his family in Lilongwe



Pregnancy is a cause for joy for every prospective mother as it is to the man that sowed the seed.

But for a tobacco tenant, Marko Mwale, 38, it was cause for worry. Then working for Chikoko Estate in Mchinji, his wife’s pregnancy cost him a job at an estate he worked for ten years.

It was in January 2005, when with pangs of happiness, his wife asked Mwale to arrange transport to Kapiri Mission Hospital about 20km away where she could get professional birth attendance.

 

Mwale did not hesitate to approach his employer for assistance as he [Mwale] did not own a bicycle nor did he have money to hire one to take her to the hospital for professional maternal healthcare. But the landlord could not allow them to.

 

“I was told to choose between caring for my wife or job. He reminded me that I had come alone and that, therefore, he could not be responsible for intruders,” Marko’s former boss and owner of Chikoko Estate told him.

 

Confused and feeling helpless, he left his boss and returned to his grass-thatched hut, which could best be described as a kraal. He found his wife lying in agony and motionless. Only a sound of groaning, a sign that she was really in deep pain, could be heard from a distance.

 

“For fear of losing my job and annual payments, I relented, went back to my house where I found my wife groaning in pain. I assumed the role of a traditional birth attendant to help my wife deliver,” Marko told officials from the Ministries of Labour, Agriculture and Centre For Social Concern (CFSC) during a “review of the working and living conditions of tobacco tenants and other workers on tobacco estates” that was held from 16—17 March in Lilongwe last year.

 

“However, the good news is that with the help and grace of God, my wife managed to deliver right at the estate. The child is still living to-date,” he sighed with deep relief.

 

Marko then went on to explain the ordeals that tenants and other workers on tobacco estates go through in the hands of their bosses. Marko described the scorn with which they are treated at the hands of the people they are slaving.

 

As if blaspheming, he said the respect estate owners receive from their tenants does not match that worshippers give to their Creator.

 

“We are treated like garbage. When we run out of basic needs, say flour, we go through our supervisor. We are not human beings at all in the eyes of our employers,” explained Marko who added that he deserted his first employer, Chikoko Estate owner in Mchinji after the boss denied him assistance to take his wife to the hospital to receive professional medical care.

 

“Our problems are recurrent. No tobacco tenant can tell you his life has improved or he has ever bought a valuable item in his life let alone a bicycle. Actually, sometimes I turn to wonder whether God cursed us.

 

“But one thing that I am very sure of is that all tobacco tenants in Malawi are serving life imprisonment and our crime is that we were born in poor families,” voiced out Marko emotionally directing looking into to the eyes of officials from Ministry of Labour and Justice.

 

Rosaria Chiteyeye, another tobacco tenant at Chiphaso in Kasungu, concurred with Marko, but unlike the latter, Chiteyeye has a slightly different version of the episode.

 

Chiteyeye, feminine that she is, told the officials how difficult life is for women and children in tobacco estates.

 

“We are not entitled to annual or maternity leave, transport facilities, medical scheme, death gratuity, and other entitlements. If estate workers fall ill, they are neither entitled to sick leave nor provided with transport to go to the hospital,” she said.

 

Chiteyeye added: “We just hear from our fellow women working in organizations or government of maternity leave. That vocabulary does not exist in tobacco estates.”

 

She also said though the degree of women’s involvement in tobacco production is equal, sometimes more, to that of men, their contributions are not directly rewarded by the estate owners or their husbands.

 

That is not all. Chiteyeye said most women in estates are subjected to mental, sexual and physical abuses from landlords and their own husbands. They are sexually harassed or even raped by their masters.

 

The situation becomes worse for tenants with large families as employers do not consider the number of the family members as their focus is on the husband.

 

“When our food allocations run out due to the large number of children that we have, our employers tell us they have no responsibility over the children,” she reported.

 

Chiteyeye further stated that children born of tenants rarely can go to school as bosses do not approve of it. She said children as young as six are offered to estate owners for domestic assignments such as looking after animals [kulisya ng’ombe, as she called it] or plucking suckers.

 

“This brings our families extra pay, which we normally use to buy some basic needs like toiletries and other basic needs,” said Chiteyeye adding that sometimes supervisors seek sexual favours from vulnerable women and their girl-children in exchange of food items.

 

Tobacco Tenants and Allied Workers Union of Malawi (TOTAWUM) general secretary, Raphael Sandram, said he was banking hopes on the November slated Parliamentary meetings to debate and pass Tenancy Labour Bill into law.

 

Sandram disclosed that the bill was very important towards uplifting the living standards of tobacco tenants and their families.

 

“In the interest of basic justice, we believe the legislation should be considered without further delay. The tenant farmers need: written, legally enforceable labour contracts, a living wage and adequate food, safe drinking water, medicine, and proper housing, interest-free loans for agricultural inputs and food, transportation to home villages, at no cost, after the growing season,” stated Sandram.

 

The trade union representing tenant farmers reported that their living conditions are worse today than when reform legislation was drafted in 1995.

 

Thirteen years later, the Tenancy Labour Bill, still held by the Ministry of Justice, has yet to be discussed in Parliament.

 

“Therefore, we urge Ministry of Justice to: (1) immediately create a Parliamentary sub-committee to review the Tenancy Labour Bill and send it to Parliament for debate; and (2) ensure that the Tobacco Tenants and Allied Workers Union of Malawi (TOTAWUM), tobacco landlord associations, and tobacco companies begin collective bargaining,” he added.

 

Officials from the ministry of Labour present at the function said the ministry was aware of the sufferings of the tenants in tobacco estates.

 

The officials, however, said they are failing to rescue the tobacco workers from abuse and violations due to lack of law empowering them to discipline the estate owners.

 

“If landlords challenge us, we have nowhere to go. We cannot take them to court for abusing the rights of their workers as there is no law on tenancy,” said one of the officials, Audrey Khungwa, when asked why his ministry was silent on the cry of the tenants.

 

Centre for Social Concern (CFSC) executive director, Fr. Jos Kuppens, said at the review meeting that over 500, 000 Malawians are living under dehumanizing conditions in tobacco estates.

 

Fr. Kuppens cited tobacco workers and families on estates of Lilongwe, Mchinji and Mzimba as some of the tenant going through such conditions despite efforts by the Ministries of Labour and Justice, and other civil society organizations to create human environment tobacco workers.

 

As a signatory to various human rights treaties and Conventions, like the Convention of the Rights of Children (CRC), the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Fr. Kuppens observed that Malawi is obliged to enforce conditions that ensure that all its citizens, including tobacco workers and their families, can enjoy their rights and entitlements.

 

“Tobacco workers live in extreme poverty and are often subjected to high levels of exploitation including sexual harassment for women by their supervisors. There are high human rights abuses and violations” he said.

 

“The situation has become more serious since the advent of market liberalization. The majority of the tobacco workers [tenants and contracted workers] work without written or oral contracts.

 

“Furthermore, many landlords on tobacco estates deny workers basic necessities such as medication; food when they run out of their monthly allocation, safe drinking water and housing,” he added

 

The CFSC director lamented that despite the fact that most of the country’s imported goods are paid for in foreign exchange that is generated by the sale of tobacco, those who are mostly responsible for the foreign exchange have no access to proper housing, clean drinking water, and schools for their children, medical services.

 

Tobacco production is associated with economic development in Malawi. It provides employment to a cross-section of Malawians and contributes over 70 percent of the country’s foreign exchange earnings.

 

The powerful forces behind Malawi’s tobacco-dependent economy are United States subsidiaries; Limbe Leaf, Stancom and Demon, which together purchase over 95 percent of the leaf and sell it to global cigarette firms like Philip Morris and British American Tobacco (BAT), according to CFSC.

 

In its latest survey, CFSC in partnership with other civil society organizations, with the help of the Ministry of Labour and other experts discovered that most estates do not provide services for school-going children, leading to high incidences of child labour on tobacco estates. It was established that although primary is free in the country, children become part of the workforce by working alongside their parents on tobacco fields.

 

“There was also a lot of evidence that children as young as 10 years become full time workers on these estates and earning far much less than adults,” says the survey report.

 

The study has recommended that there should be [compulsory] signed contract agreements between landlords and estate workers; seasonal labour and tenants, that stipulate what the landlords will provide as support services to the workers, how much lump sum will be paid to the worker at the end of the season.

 

It also recommends that the draft Tenancy Labour Bill that was prepared by the Ministry of Labour be tabled in the next sitting of Parliament and passed into law to empower the suffering Malawians in tobacco estates.

 

The Bill emphasizes written contracts between tenant and landlords covering things like transports of tenants, food provisions and accommodation, and their loan repayments schemes.

 

“We, therefore, demand that this bill be made known, that political parties commit themselves to tabling and passing it [500,000 voters can make a difference to any party in closely contested elections] once the new parliament is sitting and has resumed business after the May elections,” emphasized Fr. Kuppens.

 

Only until then will Marko Mwale and Rosaria Chiteyeye smile after getting a reward for their toiling on lands owned by profit-minded farmers.

 

“I am just praying for Fr. Kuppens and his team for his tireless efforts to bail us out. I hope when the war is won, I should be able to buy only a mere push bicycle, which I have always desired to own,” Marko, who is now working for Chilim’nthaka Tobacco Estate in Mchinji, told the participants when asked to say his closing remarks.

END

Callista challenges UN countries on nutrition

BY WATIPASO MZUNGU JNR

Malawi’s First Lady, Madamme Callista Mutharika, on Monday challenged UN member states that no government will achieve the Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015 if they do not prioritize issues of nutrition and eradication of extreme poverty among women and children in their respect countries.

Mutharika made the remarks in New York, USA, at this year’s African First Ladies Summit on Malnutrition, which Global Alliance for Imrpoved Nutrition (GAIN) hosted.

But the first lady was optimistic of Malawi’s likelihood to fighting the deficiency by the set year, saying her husband’s leadership was determined to do it as it has employed more action that talk.

“The developed roadmap on scaling up nutrition with nutrition being at the heart of the MDGs will be achieved by 2015 in Malawi.  Malawi is, therefore, calling upon the globe to walk the talk and not to superficially place nutrition as a weight in documents without action,” said Mutharika.

Currently, malnutrition is said to be affecting 2 billion people worldwide, with 1 in 4 children in Africa physically and mentally stunted as a result.  Malnutrition is particularly hazardous for mothers and their unborn children.  Zinc deficiencies mean that women are more likely to bleed to death in childbirth and a newborn has a window of just 1000 days to get the vitamins and minerals they need to become healthy, productive citizens in later life.

And in her presentation at the summit, Principal Secretary for Nutrition, HIV and Aids in the Office of the President and Cabinet, Dr. Mary Shawa, recommended that people should be eating foods that have high value in nutrition, especially Vitamin A, if their sexual life is to remain active.

Shawa was asked to present paper on Malawi’s success story in fighting malnutrition, achieving an impressive reduction and being among the few countries in line with the Millenium Development Goals (MDGs) targets.

“Vitamin A has proven to be the only producer of sperms hence the need for people at child-bearing ages to consume foods with Vitamin A so that their sexual life does not falter. Scientifically, it is proven Vitamin A is the only producer of sperms.  So if your sexual life has to be active, you need to consume foods that are high in Vitamin A, especially for men,” said Shawa without mentioning the recommended foods. “So, we need to make nutrition sexy”.

On malnutrition, the PS explained that the deficiency was dangerous as it leads to stunted growth, which then reduces somebody’s productivity.

"The reason is very simple, if somebody is stunted in the first five years of life, you lose 11 percent of your normal height.  Your productivity is lost by another 1.1 percent.  So for every one percent you lose, you are losing productivity by 1.1 percent, so that when you put that in monetary terms; you lose about $29-70 US million dollars per person per year," she stated.

First ladies that attended the summit included Ida Odinga (Kenya); Viviane Wade (Senegal); Sarah Mosisili (Lesotho), Penehupifo Pohamba (Namibia) and Sia Nyama Koroma (Sierra Leone) and Callista Mutharika (Malawi).  Also present at the function were World Food Program (WFP) Chief Executive Josette Sheeran besides Dr. Mary Shawa whom GAIN described as Malawi’s indomitable Secretary of Nutrition.
END

People’s views on MRA operations

BY WATIPASO MZUNGU JNR

In every constitutionally-mandated state, government bears responsibility for providing its citizens with social services such as healthcare, schools and good road network, just to mention.

But government, as a body of people that sets and administers public policy, and exercises executive, political, and sovereign power through customs, institutions, and laws within a state, also relies on citizens for revenues for executing such development activities.

In Malawi, Malawi Revenue Authority (MRA) is an agency that is mandated to assess, collect and account for tax revenues on behalf of government.

MRA was established by an Act of Parliament in 1998 and was launched in February 2000. It was formed to improve on the functions previously carried out by Departments of Customs and Excise, and Income Tax in the Ministry of Finance.

The Authority operates as a government tax administration agency under the Ministry of Finance.

The money that the body collects goes to government for implementation of various socio-economic development projects such as the construction of roads and bridges, schools, health facilities and provision of social services like national security, provision of salaries for civil servants including the police, the army, judges, doctors, nurses and teachers.

The MRA is overseen by a Board of Directors and headed by a Commissioner General to provide leadership, strategic direction and control. In pursuance of these duties and to accomplish the mandate of MRA, functional departments and divisions are in place.

MRA has two revenue divisions of Customs and Excise and Domestic Tax Divisions. It also has supporting divisions and departments namely Finance, Administration, Legal, Information &Technology, Tax Investigations, Policy Planning & Research, Internal Audit, Security and Public Relations & Taxpayer Education.

The Customs and Excise Division administers and enforces the Customs and Excise Act. The division collects Import and Excise duty and Import VAT, trade statistics, protects the community from entry and exit of prohibited goods and facilitates trade.

The Domestic Tax Division administers the Taxation and VAT Acts. The Division collects direct Income Taxes from individuals and corporations. These are in form of Pay As You Earn (PAYE), Provisional Tax, Fringe Benefit Tax and Withholding Tax. The division also collects domestic VAT and domestic excise.

MRA has three regional offices in Blantyre Lilongwe and Mzuzu, it has 32 offices spread across the country from Nsanje to Chitipa.

One of the country’s renowned economists and human rights campaigner, Mavuto Bamusi, applauds the tax collector for performing exceedingly well in the last 10 years by, among other things, beating government targets in tax collection.

Bamusi also praises the tax agency for its restructuring processes it has taken in trying to provide better services to the citizens of this country.

“For the past 10 years, MRA has been beating targets by K2 billion; and obviously this is very good news. On the other hand, MRA has improved in terms of its approach to collecting revenues from the public,” says the economist-cum-human rights activist.

“As responsible citizens, we need to encourage it by being compliant,” he adds

But Bamusi thinks MRA has not done much in terms of righting its image to the public. According to him, the body works more of a “bully with a stick in the arm ready to crack” than a professional institution.

“Again, the general public sometimes would be made to think that some people are planted at MRA as political spies. So the institution would do itself a service it endeavors to correct this public perception,” explains Bamusi adding “MRA officials should also stop practicing corruption at crossborder posts.”

Another human rights activist Undule Mwakasungula believes MRA has fared well in revenue collection for the last 10 years.

Mwakasungula, however, faults the tax collector for denying Malawians (taxpayers) information on how much revenue MRA collects and how the revenue is utilized.

“It’s important that taxpayers are aware of how much MRA collects and how it utilizes the same. This is in spirit of achieving transparency and accountability,” he says. 

Mwakasungula further notes shortfalls in deterring and interdicting cross border criminal activities, inadequate financial resources, facilities, infrastructure and untrained staff, as some of the challenges currently bringing MRA down.

“MRA should also strive more to meet their core values in terms of enhancing professionalism, equity and fairness, integrity and trust, efficiency and accountability,” explains Mwakasungula.

In conclusion, both human rights campaigners recommend that MRA should continuously institute reforms which will ensure improved efficiency and effectiveness so as to increase revenue collection. These reforms must also aim at promoting voluntary tax compliance to maximize revenue collection and decrease the cost of collecting revenue.

“MRA needs to embrace democracy in its tax collection work. MRA should stop being dictatorial. Tax-payers should feel consulted on new tax reforms. But Malawians, too, should understand their obligation to pay tax; they don’t have to be pushed,” they recommend.

END

Chiefs ask govt to build more hospitals

BY WATIPASO MZUNGU JNR

A group photo after the function at Namitambo H. Centre

As six African First Ladies are joining forces to put mothers and children at the centre of the UN development agenda in New York on Monday to discuss the prospects for meeting the 2015 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), people in Chiradzulu and Thyolo have asked government to reduce the distance expectant mothers travel in accessing antental services. 

Apparently, Pan African Civic Education Network (PACENET) was commemorating this year’s “Stand Up Against Poverty Campaign” in line with the MDGs realisation. The commemoration took place on Friday at Namitambo and Khonjeni Health Centres in Chiradzulu and Thyolo, respectively, under the theme “End maternal mortality and Environmental Degradation”.

Speaking at Namitambo Health Centre, Sub Traditional Authority Mpunga asked government to consider constructing new health centres where women can easily access antenatal as well as postnatal services without having to cover long distances.

Mpunga observed that although antenatal care is very important as it aims at preventing maternal, perinatal mortality and morbidity, the long distance women walk to reach the nearest clinic acts as a detterent to the promotion of safe motherhood.

“Besides, because of lack of enough maternity wings in the country, many clinics are constrained that even if they are well-qualified, midwives cannot ably discharge their duties,” said the chief.

She added: “There is need for government and its development partners to increase the accessibility and availability of health care services for communities in rural areas. Government should also increase financial support towards the purchase of more bicycle ambulances for ferrying mothers from poor households to use health services”.

And in her remarks at Khonjeni Health Centre, Senior Chief Kapichi said it could be meaningless for government and other health experts to encourage women to shun services of the traditional birth attendants (TBAs) when hospitals do not have enough facilities where women can deliver.

A senior official from PACENET, Doreen Chimbwanya, assured the people her organization will take up the matter with relevant authorities to avoid discouraging women who have responded with enthusiasm to the fight against maternal mortality.

“PACENET is committed to bring to the attention of the leadership of this country issues that affect the people at the grassroots. But while we are in the process doing that, we would like to call upon and encourage all expectant mothers in this country to deliver at health centres for your own safety and that of the babies,” said Chimbwanya.

Similar events were held at Chikweo Health Centre in Machinga through a cleaning up exercise of the health inside and outside premises by PACENET members of staff and female aspirants for the local government elections.

Members of staff from PACENET also donated some gifts to mothers who were in the maternity wards of all the three health centres on the day.

END

African First Ladies to discuss malnutrition

BY WATIPASO MZUNGU JNR

First Ladies from six African countries are scheduled to meet tomorrow (September 20) in New York to discuss the most effective solutions to end malnutrition in women and children, Global Alliance for Imrpoved Nutrition (GAIN) has announced.

After the function, the First Ladies will also sign a declaration showing their commitment towards the fight against malnutrition and extreme poverty among women and children in their respective countries.

In her communication made available to The Sunday Times, GAIN international media relations advisor Manuela Mirkos discloses that women and girls suffer 60 percent of all malnutrition with gender discrimination and social practices contributing to female suffering, inequality and child and maternal deaths. 

“With the occasion of the UN review of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the alliance decided to offer First Ladies from Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, Senegal and Sierra Leone an opportunity to discuss the most effective solutions to end malnutrition in women and children and sign a declaration,” says Mirkos.

According to her, Malawi’s First Lady, Madamme Callista Mutharika and Secretary for Nutrition, HIV and Aids in the Office of the President and Cabinet Dr. Mary Shawa will also have the opportunity to highlight their country’s success story in fighting malnutrition, achieving an impressive reduction and being among the few countries in line with the MDGs targets.

“At the heart of the African First Ladies Summit, hosted by GAIN, is promoting effective solutions to reach maternal health goals (MDG 5) and prevent child deaths (MDG 4). Food fortification has been identified as the most effective and cost-efficient remedy, delivering development goals and reaching the poorest people most in need on a mass scale,” Mirkos states.

On why the organization settled for wives to the presidents, the alliance justifies, saying First Ladies are part of a new breed who see their role as crucial in helping to solve the problems of their nations. Mirkos explains that as professional women in their own right (teachers, nurses, midwives and business leaders), they could play a crucial role in fast-tracking ideas for reaching the most disadvantaged of their country’s people.

According to GAIN, only 19 of the 68 countdown countries are on track to meet the UN targets and with aid budgets under pressure, proven remedies must be embraced. Nutrition is crucially important to MDGs 1, 3, 4 and 5.

Currently, malnutrition is said to be affecting 2 billion people worldwide, with 1 in 4 children in Africa physically and mentally stunted as a result.  Malnutrition is particularly hazardous for mothers and their unborn children.  Zinc deficiencies mean that women are more likely to bleed to death in childbirth and a newborn has a window of just 1000 days to get the vitamins and minerals they need to become healthy, productive citizens in later life.

First ladies attending the summit include: Lady Ida Odinga (Kenya); Viviane Wade (Senegal); Sarah Mosisili (Lesotho), Penehupifo Pohamba (Namibia); Sia Nyama Koroma (Sierra Leone) and Callista Mutharika  (Malawi). 

Other notable dignitaries attending will be World Food Programme (WFP) Chief Executive Josette Sheeran and Dr. Mary Shawa, Malawi’s “indomitable Secretary of Nutrition”.

GAIN is an organization that develops large scale food fortification programmes which have been shown to be the most cost-effective way of addressing malnutrition and delivering on development goals.

END

People’s views on MRA operations

BY WATIPASO MZUNGU JNR

In every constitutionally-mandated state, government bears responsibility for providing its citizens with social services such as healthcare, schools and good road network, just to mention.

But government, as a body of people that sets and administers public policy, and exercises executive, political, and sovereign power through customs, institutions, and laws within a state, also relies on citizens for revenues for executing such development activities.

In Malawi, Malawi Revenue Authority (MRA) is an agency that is mandated to assess, collect and account for tax revenues on behalf of government.

MRA was established by an Act of Parliament in 1998 and was launched in February 2000. It was formed to improve on the functions previously carried out by Departments of Customs and Excise, and Income Tax in the Ministry of Finance.

The Authority operates as a government tax administration agency under the Ministry of Finance.

The money that the body collects goes to government for implementation of various socio-economic development projects such as the construction of roads and bridges, schools, health facilities and provision of social services like national security, provision of salaries for civil servants including the police, the army, judges, doctors, nurses and teachers.

The MRA is overseen by a Board of Directors and headed by a Commissioner General to provide leadership, strategic direction and control. In pursuance of these duties and to accomplish the mandate of MRA, functional departments and divisions are in place.

MRA has two revenue divisions of Customs and Excise and Domestic Tax Divisions. It also has supporting divisions and departments namely Finance, Administration, Legal, Information &Technology, Tax Investigations, Policy Planning & Research, Internal Audit, Security and Public Relations & Taxpayer Education.

The Customs and Excise Division administers and enforces the Customs and Excise Act. The division collects Import and Excise duty and Import VAT, trade statistics, protects the community from entry and exit of prohibited goods and facilitates trade.

The Domestic Tax Division administers the Taxation and VAT Acts. The Division collects direct Income Taxes from individuals and corporations. These are in form of Pay As You Earn (PAYE), Provisional Tax, Fringe Benefit Tax and Withholding Tax. The division also collects domestic VAT and domestic excise.

MRA has three regional offices in Blantyre Lilongwe and Mzuzu, it has 32 offices spread across the country from Nsanje to Chitipa.

One of the country’s renowned economists and human rights campaigner, Mavuto Bamusi, applauds the tax collector for performing exceedingly well in the last 10 years by, among other things, beating government targets in tax collection.

Bamusi also praises the tax agency for its restructuring processes it has taken in trying to provide better services to the citizens of this country.

“For the past 10 years, MRA has been beating targets by K2 billion; and obviously this is very good news. On the other hand, MRA has improved in terms of its approach to collecting revenues from the public,” says the economist-cum-human rights activist.

“As responsible citizens, we need to encourage it by being compliant,” he adds

But Bamusi thinks MRA has not done much in terms of righting its image to the public. According to him, the body works more of a “bully with a stick in the arm ready to crack” than a professional institution.

“Again, the general public sometimes would be made to think that some people are planted at MRA as political spies. So the institution would do itself a service it endeavors to correct this public perception,” explains Bamusi adding “MRA officials should also stop practicing corruption at crossborder posts.”

Another human rights activist Undule Mwakasungula believes MRA has fared well in revenue collection for the last 10 years.

Mwakasungula, however, faults the tax collector for denying Malawians (taxpayers) information on how much revenue MRA collects and how the revenue is utilized.

“It’s important that taxpayers are aware of how much MRA collects and how it utilizes the same. This is in spirit of achieving transparency and accountability,” he says. 

Mwakasungula further notes shortfalls in deterring and interdicting cross border criminal activities, inadequate financial resources, facilities, infrastructure and untrained staff, as some of the challenges currently bringing MRA down.

“MRA should also strive more to meet their core values in terms of enhancing professionalism, equity and fairness, integrity and trust, efficiency and accountability,” explains Mwakasungula.

In conclusion, both human rights campaigners recommend that MRA should continuously institute reforms which will ensure improved efficiency and effectiveness so as to increase revenue collection. These reforms must also aim at promoting voluntary tax compliance to maximize revenue collection and decrease the cost of collecting revenue.

“MRA needs to embrace democracy in its tax collection work. MRA should stop being dictatorial. Tax-payers should feel consulted on new tax reforms. But Malawians, too, should understand their obligation to pay tax; they don’t have to be pushed,” they recommend.

END

Domestic violence fuelling delinquencies—Tembenu

BY WATIPASO MZUNGU JNR

Child abuse and domestic violence are contributing significantly to the rise in cases of delinquency and street-begging in the country, Magistrate Esmie Tembenu of the Blantyre Child Justice Court has said.

Tembenu made the revelation Tuesday at the launch of toll free line, which Centre for Human Rights, Education, Assistance and Advice (CHREAA) has donated to police and the courts.

The magistrate stated that besides facing abuse from own parents, many children hate to witness their parents engaging in domestic violence and so they choose to leave their home for other unknown destinations.

“Many children don’t want to see their parents fighting. When such a situation happens, children would usually choose to go onto the street where they also commit various forms of crime besides begging,” she explained.

Tembenu said even when domestic violence does not result in direct physical injury to the child, it can interfere with both the mother's and the father's parenting to such a degree that the children may be neglected or abused.
A perpetrator is clearly not providing good parenting when he physically attacks the child's mother or father. Renowned psychologists say school-age children who witness violence exhibit a range of problem behaviors including depression, anxiety, and violence towards peers.

“They are more likely to attempt suicide, abuse drugs and alcohol, run away from home, engage in teenage prostitution and other delinquent behavior, and commit sexual assault crimes,” says Dr. Mario Bacchiocchi of the Centre for Health Education and Health Appropriate Technologies (CESTAS Malawi).

Tembenu said there was need for families to create a healthy home environment for their children if such cases are to decrease.

CHREAA executive director Victor Mhango said exposure to multiple forms of violence, including domestic violence, child abuse, and general family climate of hostility, doubles the risk of children engaging in violent acts in their adulthood.

He recommended that there should be a strong attachment between childn and their parents, saying children who are strongly attached to their parents know that deviance will be a source of embarrassment and inconvenience to their parents.

“They do care about the opinions of their parents and try to avoid deviance. Attachments, therefore, would act as a primary deterrent to engaging in delinquency. The strength in such a deterrent largely depends on the depth and quality of the parent-child relationship,” he explained.

END

NGO introduces scholarships for virgins

BY WATIPASO MZUNGU JNR

Schoolchildren who can prove that they have never had sex since their birth are being offered the chance to gain scholarships to university under a scheme introduced by the newly formed faith based organization, Holiness Ministry for Protection and Development of Youth (HOMPDY).

HOMPDY chairperson Pastor Mackean Gulumba said at a press conference held in Blantyre on Tuesday the aim of the scholarships was to promote virginity among the youth as a means for combating HIV and Aids in the country.

Both boys and girls from all over the country will be eligible for the scholarships if they apply and pass a virginity test to be conducted by a well-trained medical practitioner, Pastor Gulumba said.

He said the scheme aims at promoting morality and that successful scholarship applicants would have to submit to a gynecological examination to demonstrate their chastity.

“Some more gifts will be given on brides and grooms who prove to be virgins at the time of their marriage. The idea is to try to instil a culture of total abstinence and maintain virginity in children aged eight to 14. We believe this is the only surest way of fighting the pandemic,” he explained.

“We want our children to totally refrain from sexual intercourse until they are married. It’s our prayer that Malawians should adhere to virginity as one of God’s ordinances,” added Gulumba.

HOMPDY Projects Manager Hastings John Magombo said the organization will also inspire girls with self-esteem, saying girls have usually fallen victims of rape and defilement because they are lacking self-esteem.

“If our children can choose to maintain their virginity, there will be reduced cases of rape. This will, in turn, lead to reduction in the number of new HIV infections,” Magombo stated.

Asked about their stand on the use of condoms, another executive member of the organization, Rev. Tendance Suya, said although they are not demeaning efforts by other players, the organization will be fighting for total abstinence.

“We want the youth not to be thinking about condoms, but virginity alone,” said Suya.

Rev. Suya expressed hope that the new offer would encourage responsible living and help in the fight against sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV/Aids by offering a reward for children to avoid risky behaviour.

Meanwhile, the organization has lined up 60 nationwide activities to sensitize community and traditional leaders about the new development.

END