Provide solution to challenges—Livingstonia Synod

 The CCAP Synod of Livingstonia has called on Malawians to take part in providing solutions to challenges the country is facing.

Speaking in an interview on Friday in Lilongwe where the synod held its General Administrative Committee meeting to reflect on how it has performed in the past years and on the way forward, CCAP Synod of Livingstonia General Secretary William Tembo said government alone cannot address all the challenges facing the country.

He said: “People should not expect government to be the answer to every problem. Every stakeholder needs to come in, including on the one million job creation, we all need to help the government.

“As a synod, we must come in and provide jobs to people and not only to CCAP members. It should be to any person whether Roman Catholic, when they want a job, they should get. Even if one is not a Christian, if they want a job from CCAP, they should get it.”

Tembo also urged those with governance concerns to engage government in a peaceful way, saying the synod believes in contact and dialogue.

“As for us, we will not speak against government for the sake of embarrassing authorities. We believe in engaging leaders rather than being vocal on issues to embarrass leaders.

“I know in Malawi people would want to hear that the general secretary or the church has spoken this. But for the sake of growth, maturity and progress of our nation, we feel it is better to engage the people in authority directly,” he said.

But in an interview, University of Malawi political scientist Mustafa Hussein said not everyone is able to engage leaders and the Constitution provides platforms on which they can express themselves.

On the issue of Malawians helping provide solutions to challenges facing the country, he said it is obvious that government cannot be an answer to everything but said it has the responsibility to ensuring public service delivery to meet the needs of Malawians.

“No institution can ask government to abscond from its responsibilities. About 80 percent of Malawians live in rural areas and they are small holder farmers. Poverty levels are high and not many can take care of themselves. We are not saying government should provide everything, but it has the responsibility that people are taken care of,” he said.