During his time as Tanzania’s president, the late John Pombe Magufuli inspired a catchphrase ‘What would Magufuli do?’ which his admirers brought up every time a public officer failed in their duties.
Of course, the refrain had been used before in reference to others such as President Barack Obama, but had never been linked with an African leader before.
Magufuli had his own weaknesses, just as the case with all humanity, but did all he could during his time as Tanzania’s leader to make things work.
He earned the name ‘bulldozer’ for his assertiveness to get things done at all cost.
After his election in 2015, he significantly cut wasteful spending and tackled rampant corruption in government through working reforms.
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Of course, as is always the case with leaders with despotic tints, not much about his darker side was published by the media.
But his governance style is said to have worked in a way, especially on cracking down on corruption and putting money back into government coffers.
In the first months of his reign, Magufuli suspended foreign travel for public officials except himself, the vice president and the prime minister.
While he was accused of “too much micromanagement”, after he sacked officials involved in misappropriation of public funds—like what he did after a discovery of a tax evasion scandal at the Tanzania Ports Authority—that approach seems to have instilled a great deal of discipline in his country.
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President Lazarus Chakwera delivered a moving eulogy at Magufuli’s funeral in March 2021 where he stressed that the fallen Tanzania leader was an icon and a hero who inspired the whole of Africa.
Chakwera noted that Magufuli’s ways of fighting corruption had significantly changed Tanzania and that evidence was there for all to see.
That time, back in Malawi, it was not yet very apparent on which trajectory the fight against corruption and the larger reforming of the public service were.
The hope among many, however, was that Chakwera was determined to cleanse the public sector and chart a new path for his country.
Today, all those are failed projects.
Corruption is rampant and the rule of law is being flagrantly trashed by public officers.
The fight against corruption has become so languid and the corrupt are being shielded by State machinery which was supposed to be cracking down on the vice.
Now, it so appears, disorder has crept back into every sphere of the public sector such that some officials no longer care about respecting the law.
Had the seriousness in fighting corruption and respecting the rule of law to the letter that Chakwera had pretended to show at the start of his presidency persisted to this day, we would not be having public officers failing to declare their assets.
It may appear a very abstract requirement, but in systems that perfectly work, assets declaration regimes significantly check illicit accumulation of wealth.
It is crucial in fighting corruption as it can even be used by the Anti- Corruption Bureau in its lifestyle audits and general corruption investigations.
But as it stands currently, the Public Officers (Declaration of Assets, Liabilities and Business Interests) Act is one of the most despised pieces of legislation in this country.
The Public Appointments Committee (Pac) of Parliament has been meeting officials from State-owned institutions whose firms failed to comply with the dictates of the assets law.
Pac chairperson Joyce Chitsulo has been threatening that her committee will recommend disciplinary action on officers who ignore the law.
Well, in a functioning public system, it would not even require a recommendation from a parliamentary committee for authorities to act on listed public workers who fail to declare their assets.
A report on compliance from the assets directorate was enough for Capital Hill to go after negligent officers.
But that spirit of solemnity and urgency in governance affairs is just not there in Malawi.
Magufuli, whom Chakwera enormously revered, would not have presided over the chaos and disrespect of the rule of law we are seeing in this country.
He would not allow laws that were designed to help in fighting corruption and bribery being ignored with reckless abandon by those on whom they apply.
There are those who believe the President should not be dragged into every case of public chaos in this country.
But the truth remains that much of the failures and chaos we continue to see in the public service point to problems at the highest level.
So, it would be preposterous to exonerate Chakwera from the many sins that are holding back Malawi’s progress.
