By Cathy Maulidi:
Some officers from the Department of Immigration and Citizenship Services (Dics) are demanding the resignation or dismissal of the department’s leadership for allegedly maltreating them.
They are also accusing Dics Director Charles Kalumo of failing to efficiently lead the department, whose main responsibility is to issue passports to Malawians.
The disgruntled workers on Monday spent about six hours—up to around 8 in the evening—at Ministry of Homeland Security premises in Lilongwe, where they alleged that working under the current Dics leadership is torturous.
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Speaking to journalists after meeting Homeland Security Principal Secretary (PS) responsible for administration, Erica Maganga, a representative of the employees Charles Chisi said they are tired of what he called deep-seated maltreatment.
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Chisi said they want the leadership to be changed.
“We have put forward our concerns to the PS. We are demanding the firing of the director general. If the demand is not met, we are going to down tools.
“We initially wanted the DG fired by Friday this week but the PS has said we need to give her office more time to look into the issues with the right authorities. We have given her office 10 days to get back to us,” he said.
Chisi said the concerned Disc officers believe President Lazarus Chakwera will act on their grievances and fire their boss.
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He said they had told the PS during the meeting that officers at the department were being suspended without clear reasons and being sent on retirement before their designated time.
“This is often done verbally. That is not how things are supposed to be done in government. Some officers have been on suspension for over a year and they still do not know their fate,” Chisi said.
Information shared during the meeting indicated that over 40 officers were verbally suspended by the Dics leadership.
It is unclear if they are seeking legal redress in line with their claims that they did not commit any crime.
However, Chisi went further to accuse the Immigration leadership over the passport issuance crisis, saying it is not giving a chance to officers willing to help to do so.
Since January this year, Malawians have been struggling to access the travel document due to printing challenges.
For some weeks, the system was completely down, making it impossible for anyone to get a passport, before it got restored after Chakwera issued an ultimatum.
On Monday evening, Maganga refused to grant us an interview, saying she wanted to go home and rest.
Homeland Security PS Steven Kayuni said Tuesday that he had been informed about the Dics officers’ visit to the ministry.
Kayuni, however, indicated he was yet to receive a report from Maganga on the issue.
We did not manage to get a comment from Kalumo as his mobile phone kept declining our calls.
Meanwhile, Human Rights Defenders Coalition Chairperson Gift Trapence has asked the authorities to quickly address the issue to prevent a potential strike at the Immigration Department.
“The immigration officers have raised serious issues, which tells us that the department is in a crisis that needs government’s attention.
“It goes on to show that the crisis has been there for some time and authorities have been neglecting the issues,” Trapence said.
