Agriculture PS, Mzadd boss risk jail sentences

Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security principal secretary (PS) and Mzuzu ADD programme manager risk being jailed for defying a High Court order to include 45 chiefs and their subordinates as beneficiaries of the Farm Input Subsidy Programme (Fisp).

This comes after the High Court in Mzuzu on November 15 2012 granted an injunction restraining government from excluding 45 chiefs and their subjects in Mzuzu on a list of Fisp beneficiaries.

The villages around Dunduzu Roadblock were allegedly excluded from the programme following the expansion of the city and introduction of block leaders in those areas.

Judge Dingiswayo Madise ordered that the chiefs and their subordinates be included on the list of beneficiaries and be given the inputs so that they support their families.

However, the Ministry of Agriculture continues to defy the order, a development that has raised fears among the chiefs and their subordinates that they will continue to suffer as government has shown no commitment to bail them out of poverty.

The chiefs through lawyer George Kadzipatike have since filed grounds for committal to prison for the two officials at the High Court in Mzuzu.

Speaking in an interview on Monday, Kadzipatike said it was unfortunate that the officials decided to sideline the 45 villages and also to continue to defy a court order when its leadership claims to be committed to poverty alleviation and upholding the rule of law.

“Government is subjecting 45 villages to abject poverty on the basis that the city extended. Does extension of the city mean poverty alleviation? What they should know is that those are still poor people, some poorer than those outside the city,” said Kadzipatike.

PS for Agriculture and Food Security Jeffrey Luhanga said he does not comment on matters that are in court.