By Vincent Gunde
District Commissioner for Lilongwe Dr. Lawford Palani, has postponed the intended demonstrations planned by the Concerned Civil Servants on Wednesday the 12th March, 2025 at the Parliament Building in Lilongwe.
Dr. Palani said among others, the Concerned Civil Servants did not have permission to go to the Parliament Building to present their petition and that the registered Civil Service Trade Union (CSTU), Teachers Union of Malawi (TUM) and Malawi Congress of Trade Union (MCTU) have distanced themselves from the Concerned Civil Servants.
This is contained in a response to notice of planned demonstrations on Wednesday 12th March, 2025 at the Parliament Building to deliver a petition dated 10th March, 2025 and signed by Dr. Lawford Palani, District Commissioner for Lilongwe.
In his response, Dr. Palani said the Concerned Civil Servants did not consult relevant government offices such as the Office of the President and Cabinet (OPC), the Department of Human Resources and the Ministry of Labour for more information.
Palani said the organized meeting between Concerned Civil Servants and CSTU, TUM and MCTU that legally represents the civil servants that took place from Thursday and Friday last week, did not yield any results.
“It is against this background, that it has been resolved that your intended demonstrations planned on Wednesday, 12th March, 2025 at the Parliament Building be postponed,” reads Palani’s response in part.
The response by Dr. Palani has been received by the civil servants with anger suspecting that both CSTU and TUM have received millions of Kwachas to stop the much-anticipated demonstrations against 20 percent hike of civil servants’ salaries from 1st April, 2025.
Jolam Kathewera who was set to be one of the demonstrators said civil servants are not understanding why their leaderships made statements to the media that all civil servants are satisfied with 20 percent hike of their salaries.
Kathewera has argued that if civil servants planned to go for demonstrations while satisfied with 20 percent hike of their salaries is clearly speaking for itself that money exchanged hands between government and the registered Unions to stop the demonstrations.
On his part, a Malawi Congress Party (MCP) diehard of Mvera in Dowa district Mr. Rodgers Kamphangala, has thanked the Concerned Civil Servants for wanting to deliver a petition to Parliament after noting that their leadership has been silenced with bags of money in their pockets.
Kamphangala, a former secondary school teacher, has claimed that if there has been a government which has no welfare of teachers at heart is the MCP observing that even interviews for promotion, the results are communicated to the successful candidates through phone calls to go to the office to sign GP1 FORMS in secret.
He said for 5 years of President Chakwera, teachers have lived very miserable lives and no teacher is ready to vote for President Chakwera to bounce back into government on 16th September, 2025 elections.
“All the previous governments left a mark in the teachers but not this one of the MCP, devaluating the local currency by 44 percent and giving civil servants 20 percent hike, this alone, civil servants are not on the side of the MCP,” said Kamphangala.
