Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace (CCJP) has called for concerted efforts to enhance women participation in politics.

Director for Social Development Directorate in the diocese of Mangochi Father Simon Mundisiye made the remarks in Balaka district on Thursday.

Mundisiye said women participation in politics can help in developmental activities; arguing women are trustworthy and easy to be approached when needed.

“Women are always on the forefront in development activities. As such, they have potential in political decision making,” he said.

One of the participants, Grace Welosi described the meeting as timely ahead of the 2025 elections.

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Catholic Commission for Justice and peace (CCJP) has appealed to Malawians to vote wisely in the forthcoming elections if they want a transformed Malawi.

The remarks were made by Diocesan CCJP coordinator Arnold Msimuko on Monday in Rumphi during voter education meeting organized by CCJP.

In his remarks Msimuko said the fate of a Transformed Malawi lies in the hands of Malawians themselves.

“We are advising Malawians to vote for a leader who can change and transform the country without looking for affiliation,” said Msimuko.

He further asked the citizens to see the potential of the person to transform the country.

“We should not look into the background of a person but ones potential if Malawi is to move the base of index poverty,” he said.

According to Msimuko, the latest report by International Monetary Fund (IMF) Malawi stand on third position from the bottom among 28 poorest countries in the world, therefore there is need for a leader to bail Malawi out of this shame.

“Let’s take advantage of the polls to correct the situation,” appealed Msimuko.

He further advised traditional leaders not to mislead their subjects in making their voting decision.

Malawi’s flagship daily newspaper, The Nation, has reported that President Joyce Banda is becoming unpopular because her government’s one year performance on the microeconomic level is creating simmering anger in the voters, the paper quoted analysts.

The report on Tuesday comes after the paper’s weekly title, Nation on Sunday on April 14 reported that its survey showed that Malawians have expressed dissatisfaction with the president’s performance.

In his critique of President Banda’s first year in office, Dr Henry Chingaipe, an expert in governance and development, said: “It is worth noting that on a large-scale, the President has done well on high level needs, thus macro level. However, cash poverty has become worse since Banda took over the reins of power. As such, she has increasingly become unpopular among people at the grass roots.”

He told the paper that: “Many of them [the people] are poorer than they were before April 2012. The future is not optimistic in the short-term as fuel prices will continue to go up, meaning a continued rise in food prices.

“Stabilising the kwacha holds the key to stabilising the economy. But I do not know how government can achieve that knowing fully that there is not enough of forex being generated from the ongoing tobacco sales.”

Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace (CCJP) national secretary Chris Chisoni also told the newspaper: “The ever increasing prices of commodities are creating anger and animosity among the electorate. This is evident from the feedback we have been getting from these people as an organisation that aims at advocating people’s consciences.”

The commentators urged President Banda to do more to ease the economic problems Malawians are facing if she is to restore their faith in her.

Survey

According to a survey carried out by The Nation on Sunday newspaper released Sunday, 14th April 2013 which had 1 278 respondents, in 17 districts by way of face to face interviews as well as short message text service (SMS), President Banda is losing support.

Out of the total respondents, 900 indicated they were not impressed with Banda’s performance as president. This represented 70 percent of the sample.

Human rights activist Billy Mayaya hailed Banda in other areas but pointed out that her weak points stem from the extravagance and unbridled expenditure of her government on international travel which ideally should be delegated to technocrats in key ministries.

Mayaya said the President spends too much time out of the country with a begging bowl which someone else can easily carry.

“Her presence in the country is hardly felt. The purchase of new luxury cars for ministers is a slap in the face in this time of supposed austerity,” he said.

Mayaya said Banda needs to return to the drawing board and focus on articulating her vision for economic recovery as this will be the number one issue in the 2014 elections.

“Malawians will decide her fate based on the message she crafts related to the recovery of the free-falling economy,” he said.

Reaction

Malawi’s Minister of Information and Civic Education Moses Kunkuyu said President Banda has performed very well in her first year in office.

“We had to devalue the kwacha for we knew the country will benefit in the short-term. It might be tough now, but it will soon be over. There are several initiatives government is undertaking to make sure everything is in order, one of them being the economic recovery plan,” said Kunkuyu who is also government spokesman.

Kunkuyu defended the President’s policies claiming whatever Malawi was implementing were owned by government and not the International Monetary Fund (IMF) prescriptions blindly

Banda ascended to the presidency in April 2012 in line with constitutional order after the death of Bingu wa Mutharika.

Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace (CCJP) through its Primary Justice Project on Tuesday trained 58 tribunals in the areas of Traditional Authorities Kanduku and Nthache in Mwanza on the concept of primary justice, gender based violence and human rights issues.

Primary Justice Project Officer, Anastanzio Matewere said the project trained 47 traditional leaders in T/A Kanduku whilst other 11 local leaders in T/A Nthache were equipped with skills that would help them handle cases at local level.

He explained that village heads have a critical role in implementing the primary justice concept as they are at the center of delivering justice at community level saying as such, they needed to have knowledge on how to handle cases effectively.

“Chiefs are taken as tribunals who are supposed to administer cases. However, they just inherited the chieftaincy without being trained on how to execute their work. So, this training was organized to equip them with necessary skills that would help them execute their duties effectively,” he said.

Matewere said the project is advocating for women inclusion in all its activities so that issues that pose a great challenge to women are ably sorted out by their fellow women.

“We want female arbitrators because they understand better cases that have gender perspective.  For example, a pregnancy case could effectively be dealt with by female tribunals,” he said.

Malawi on Sunday April 7  marks one year since President Joyce Banda took office after the death of president Bingu wa Mutharika on April 5, 2012.

Since coming to power, Banda has won praise from abroad for introducing economic reforms.

But at home, she’s attracted opposition from critics who say that progress is not moving fast enough

Featured  on BBC Focus on Africa, President Banda  was asked what would be her score card on her first anniversary as  a Head of State , she said Malawians should judge her.

“I want Malawians to look back, at least where we were. Did we have fuel or not?” said President Banda, who launched reforms in a bid to revive the economy ruined by her predecessor.

Banda said she conducts surveys and know where Malawians are placing her.

“The feedback that I am getting  a year on are different from urban to rural. The rural people have faith and love for me,” she disclosed.

No merry

President of Political Science Association (PSA), Joseph Chunga, said there is nothing worthy to “ celebrate for looking at the past year.”

He said  Malawians have nothing to celebrate  but that there is still everything to fight for to end economic hardships.

Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace (CCJP) national secretary Chris Chisoni said Malawians have nothing to make merry on President Banda and her People’s Party one year rule, saying  people are starving and there are no drugs in hospitals.

Chisoni said Malawi economy is “grinding to a halt.”

Opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) spokesman Nicholas Dausi said Malawians were not happy with President Banda’s rule, saying it has led to starvation, daily price hikes and an inflation rate of closer to 40 percent.

Inherited problems

UDF president Atupele Muluzi  said President  Banda “inherited a very difficult state of affairs and her administration has had to make some very tough decisions in order to recover our economy.

“These reforms have not been easy on Malawians, but we had limited choices. The reform measures undertaken were unavoidable and to ensure the success of these reforms they must be premised upon building State capability, accountability and responsiveness.”

He nonetheless pointed out that good governance is key to the success of the recovery plan.