Reject bad leadership

The Star is one of the oldest and highly respected newspapers in Johannesburg, South Africa.

If you are a Malawian looking for a job in Johannesburg, you just need to get it.

There is a dedicated column in the Classified Ads section: Malawian Gardener Wanted

Malawians of those days were honest, reliable, trustworthy and hardworking.

People could trust multimillion-rand property with them when going on holiday outside South Africa. They could come back to find everything intact. Not even a needle missing. The garden neatly manicured.

Pick n Pay founder Raymond Ackerman had two Malawians working in his home. There was an article in the newspaper in which he spoke highly of them in 1990s. Malawians are excellent human beings, he said.

These are ordinary people who had come to South Africa and worked with integrity. They were happy with their menial work and contented with their small pay. They respected what was not theirs—kuopa chamwini.

They worked without complaints in everything. They raised children of their masters. As the children grew, they too looked to a Malawian gardener to look after their homes.

This is why the tabloid’s Classified Ads column goes on to this very minute.

Early in the days, when we came to South Africa, we rode on the reputation built by our ordinary parents who had come before us.

We found work easier than people of other nationalities. We were welcome in their communities.

Today, when you go to Soweto, Thembisa Townships you will find Manyasa Sections, the vast areas occupied by Malawians.

Let me unpack this for you: almost every boss that had a Malawian also knew that Dr Hastings Kamuzu Banda was Malawi’s President.

They knew the founding leader was highly educated and a strict person.  They knew he taught his people that trust, discipline and hard work was the currency that could buy them a place anywhere in the world.

They knew that Kamuzu, who ruled the country for 31 years, had come to South Africa and worked in the mines before proceeding to America.

Kamuzu built the enduring legacy of Malawi as a country of people you could trust. He was no ordinary person or medical doctor.  He had a dream for his country.

He was a politician who divorced African affairs and cncentrated on his country.

He governed with an iron grip.

Most importantly, he produced Malawians that understood the meaning of integrity, fear and respect.

He produced trustworthy civil servants, not cashgaters.

He established State-owned companies as a foundation for national development.

Let me talk about a Malawian in my house. Hendricks is the template of a Malawian of yesteryears. We have been together for many years and he has seen my children being born. He is simply trustworthy. He never disappoints.

When we leave our home in his hands, we know it is safe.

Today, things have changed drastically.

Our leaders are our worst enemies: thieves without a soul, shame and a balance of humanity.

Our leaders carry characteristics of a hyena-inhumane and vicious in doing what is evil.

Malawians born today look up to our political leaders and emulate their shady ways.

The outcome is scary—ana akuba and corrupt minds in public service.

When you hear stories of what Malawians are capable of doing in South Africa today, you wonder which Malawi these young men and women came from.

Fraud.  Corruption.  Burglary. Murder. The list is long.

Their parents back home never go to bed without defrauding a government on daily basis.

You must be morally bankrupt to sing praises of leaders and compatriots without morals.

When we say Malawi is in decay mode, we put the blame on the corrupt leadership.

Criminals cannot build a country to the next level.

Criminals can only drag the country six feet under.

Changing the narrative starts with you and me rejecting poor leadership. n