One of the biggest problems we have in this country is that most people have an “I don’t care” attitude.
This laissez-faire approach to doing things is evident everywhere, more so in the public service.
Most people employed by the State seem not to like their jobs and they do things as they please them, when they please them.
A good example of this was witnessed when the Vice President Michael Usi made surprise visits to certain institutions where he found employees not ready for visits nor for work.
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The unfortunate thing is that this attitude leads to poor service delivery – a trademark we have as a country.
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If you decide to visit a public office on a particular day, nothing else should be planned for that day. You should see the multitudes outside immigration offices.
Visit the emergency section of our public hospitals and watch if there is any sense of urgency there.
The wheels in this country move slowly or do not move at all, unless of course you oil them with some pocket change. Some people make sure that our systems are not efficient in order to create room for corruption.
As a country, we are now facing our reality and witnessing the ugly side of poor systems and massive corruption.
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The road accidents that are claiming dozens of our brothers and sisters every day are very much the harvest of seasons of negligence.
A recent minibus accident that claimed 26 lives in Kasungu should make us stop and look in the mirror. That tragedy is the ultimate example of what negligence can do.
Imagine a 16-seater minibus that had 25 people on board. The bus was overloaded and it is not surprising that people failed to free themselves from the deathtrap when it overturned.
A naïve spectator may be wondering how that minibus crossed the many roadblocks that our police erect at every 20 metres as if we are at war.
But some of us who have lived here long enough are not surprised at all that the minibus made it through.
When you see the police on the road, they are not trying to protect citizens or enforce the law. They are looking for money.
Many are times we have heard that these people are given targets to reap as much as possible from poor Malawians. And being human, it is also possible that they try to reap as much as possible for their potbellies.
So, if you are in the wrong, you can buy a general receipt and continue breaking the law. You can also just part with some five thousand kwacha and continue with your business.
We don’t even need to mention that most of the drivers on our roads are unqualified to drive. You can tell from their recklessness and disregard for caution that these people did not attend any driving school.
It is not news in Malawi to hear that somebody got their driver’s license corruptly. These unqualified drivers are the ones entrusted with the lives of Malawians in public transportation.
Most of the times, the vehicles that these people drive are not roadworthy. Driving on our roads, you will ask yourself questions as to how some of the assembled metals you meet got their certificates of fitness.
Absurdly, the police will never stop those vehicles or the kabaza guy carrying four people without helmets on his unlicensed motorbike. They will, however, look for the slightest problem on your small Toyota Corolla as you rush to work.
Corruption, negligence and incompetence have invited death into our land. We know exactly what is wrong on our roads but no authority is willing to act and make things right.
Most of the emergency casualties in our hospitals are victims of kabaza accidents, but the government does not want to take strict measures against kabaza operators because it may risk losing popularity.
When your life has been reduced to a vote, nobody cares how many people die from avoidable deaths.
We should not expect to be safe on the roads when we know very well that our poor roads are only mended when the president is travelling towards that direction.
The system has dehumanised us and our lives don’t matter. The regrettable thing is that we have allowed this to happen.
