Last weekend, Malawian job-seekers were yet again taken through a dehumanising process in the name of walk-in interviews for possible employment in the health sector. These were mostly young people—fresh out of school—who have hopes to make a living and survive this hell of a country. But the futility of those hopes and dreams confronted them when they walked into stadia packed to the brim by their peers. More than 40,000 unemployed Malawians were there to compete for about 2,500 available positions. The picture was depressing, for lack of a better word.
What transpired over the weekend is a distress signal loud enough to shake those in power awake. It is a clear literal picture vividly painting the desperate situation in the country. We have more people unemployed than those who are earning a living, no matter how meagre those earnings. And the fact that most of the idle are youths indicates that this is a country that is failing to take advantage of the youth bulge. If this were a properly functioning country, the presence of a lot of young people with productive capacity would have enhanced productivity, boosting the economy. But here, the youth are wasting away on alcohol and drugs as the older generation in power tries to find ways of stealing from the country.
What is even more disheartening is that we are in this desperate situation after having been promised more than a million jobs by this government when it campaigned for power. The disillusionment with this regime has led most people to conclude that this is one of the most manipulative governments to be in power in the history of our democracy. They have failed to deliver most of their campaign promises and yet they want to paint a picture of prosperity. They are championing small gains, such as basic road networks under construction, while the most necessary needs for better lives have not been addressed.
The country is still reeling from hunger as food security has not been achieved. Most people out there are failing to make ends meet because the economy is in shambles. We are still experiencing fuel shortages and uncontrolled rises in prices of basic goods and commodities. All these things are happening at the watch of a regime that is geared towards retaining power come September 2025.
The biggest problem we have is that our leaders love to live in bubbles of lies. That most of our population is illiterate does not help the matter. Most Malawians are easily taken advantage of because they lack basic reasoning skills. They still see a politician as their benefactor and they cannot imagine life without that savior. For instance, our political leaders know very well that the official status of the Kwacha against foreign currencies is phoney, but they keep it that way in order to save face. They don’t want to face the truth and risk losing popularity. And in all this, it is the average citizen who is paying the cost.
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The government knows that they have failed to create employment opportunities for the youth, but they would never admit this. Instead, they have to find ways of spinning the wheel to their advantage. Firstly, they make noise about loans that are available to the youth, through the National Economic Empowerment Fund, for example, but how many Malawian youths have benefitted from that? The situation last weekend should show you that most young people are still desperate out there. The other spin of the bottle is that of lying to the youth that they should not look for employment after school, but rather, they should create employment. How many people would be able to survive in self-employment straight out of school in this economy? This, too, is another lie for political expediency.
The large numbers of people who went to packed stadia seeking basic employment should tell you just how desperate the socio-economic situation is in this country. The quality of life has become low and we are living with a time bomb under our feet. What we need is a government that understands and admits its shortcomings for collective and corrective action to improve the situation. We cannot continue to lie that the government has delivered when people are hungry out there. We cannot face such dehumanisation and then look the other way.
