The embattled Immigration chief was supposed to have brought the scalpel that would give the department the needed surgery to heal it. But did he apply too much of the soldier in him instead of the careful life-saving surgeon that he should have been?
By Cathy Maulidi:
At no point in recent memory has the Immigration Department been in turmoil as it has been since Charles Kalumo, a brigadier who retired from the army in 1994, took over as Director General in August 2022.
Among his soldier peers and among the people he has been leading at the department, Kalumo attracts opposite assessment about his character, according to information we have gathered.
Kalumo came to a department that has long been a source of frustration for Malawians seeking passports and other services.
But when a junior officer within the department, Chikhulupiliro Zidana, challenged his appointment, describing it as illegal and inconsistent with public service conditions, it was a premonition of the torrid time Kalumo was to preside over.
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In Kalumo’s time, Malawians have lived a moment when the passport processing was suspended because the system was hacked.
Today, in the aftermath of the restoration of the system, only one office is issuing passports and Malawians are living a full-blown crisis as getting the document is such a nightmare.
At first, it was frustrated Malawians protesting as they demanded passports.
Along the way, officers joined the fray baying for Kalumo’s head.
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Broken system
According to Human Rights Defenders Coalition (HRDC) chairperson Gift Trapence, the protests plaguing the department are a symptom of a broader leadership crisis and a broken system.
“The impasse at the Immigration Department reflects a broken system and lack of leadership in resolving the issues that have engulfed immigration.
“Whether the challenges are emanating from internal or external sources, there is a need for leadership to make radical decisions to resolve whatever issues are making the department ineffective in service delivery,” Trapence said.
Inspector Charles Chisi, a representative of the Immigration officers who have been demanding Kalumo’s sacking, placed the blame squarely on his boss.
“When Kalumo came to the department in 2022, he found a vibrant department with well-functioning structures but the problem he did was that he brought a military style of leadership into the department.
“Instead of respecting the organisation structure he found, he started purging senior officers from the system and instead appointed junior officers to work with him,” Chisi said.
According to Chisi, Immigration Department as a security institution follows order of command where junior officers report to senior officers.
“But what he did by appointing junior officers into critical positions meant senior officers were now reporting to junior officers which is awkward in a security institution like ours,” Chisi said.
He said Kalumo also used military approach when handling disciplinary matters with officers.
“Instead of following proper government procedures for disciplining officers, he verbally interdicted and suspended several officers without according them the right to be heard,” Chisi said.
He highlighted the consequences of Kalumo’s leadership, including the centralisation of passport issuance in Lilongwe, resulting in chaos and applicants spending nights outside the offices, something which has never happened.
“People are spending nights at the department along the road; this is sad, but the leadership is not giving a chance to officers who are willing to help to do so,” he said.
But a friend of Kalumo from his time at the Malawi Defence Force defended him.
He even suggested he should be given a chance to reform the department.
“I agree he is militant but he has potential to change things at the department. Before he joined the department, there was too much corruption there. For example at the borders, a bus could stop and someone could just get passports for all passengers and take them to the immigration for stamps. The officer could just put stamps without confirming the face of the person. This was order of the day in terms of corruption at the department.
“The officers there eat corruption. That’s what they do and Kalumo as Director General was trying to stop that and that is why they want him to leave because he is standing in their way. He wanted corruption at the department to stop and they are against that because that’s what they know best,” said the colleague.
However, Chisi dismissed this claim.
He said if Kalumo ever caught the officers in acts of corruption, then he should have gotten them investigated and arrested.
“He claimed to be fighting corruption and trying to paint a picture out there that the department is too corrupt. However, while elements of corruption cannot be dismissed in a government setting where service delivery is poor, the fight against corruption was not a warrant for him to break government procedures when handling disciplinary matters,” Chisi said.
Kalumo’s response to criticism has been dismissive, insisting that he has always worked to improve the department.
Responding to this reporter’s question at one of the earlier press conferences alongside Minister of Homeland Ken Zikhale Ng’oma, Kalumo insisted he has improved the department.
We asked him: “Some are attributing the challenges facing the department now to the poor relationship you have with your staff. Don’t you think the mess the Immigration Department is in today is as a result of your own officers trying to get back at you?”
This was his response:
“Madam, you don’t know me, I don’t know you. I’m a respectable man. I have been a Brigadier. I’m a man of principles. I do not know what you are talking about, but I have always worked so hard to make sure things work perfectly at the department.”
Despite the crisis, Zikhale Ng’oma assured that his ministry is working tirelessly to address the issues and ensure the department becomes efficient.
Now Zidana’s application against Kalumo’s appointment has received a favourable court decision.
On Thursday, High Court judge Mike Tembo removed Kalumo from the position, describing his appointment as illegal.
Almost immediately, Attorney General Thabo Chakaka Nyirenda made an oral application for a stay of the ruling, which was also rejected.
Nyirenda has taken the matter to the Supreme Court.
Essentially, this means that Kalumo is out of the job until the Supreme Court decision.
