Catholic bishop tells Malawi opposition to help fight for poor

Fiery Catholic bishop Mathews Mtumbuka has told opposition politicians to rise up and take their rightful role to fight for the rights of ordinary poor people.

Bishop Mtumbuka said this recently when he presided over the celebrations of 50th anniversary of Ludzi Girls Secondary School in Machinji.

Mtumbuka said government service delivery is poor and this is negatively affecting ordinary poor who, in some public offices, are asked to pay a bribe for free public service.

Malawi Congress Party (MCP) president Lazarus Chakwera was present when Mtumbuka said this whilst the United Transformation Movement (UTM) was represented by former First Lady Callista Mutharika.

He described the civil service as a disaster, saying this was reason enough for the opposition to take up their rightful role of checks and balances.

He gave an example of his own church which he said struggles to get work permits for nuns and brothers who teach in various secondary schools.

“We even brought this is to His Excellency the president so that the work permits are speeded up for the good of our own children but things are not changing. It takes ages and ages to get work permits,” he said.

The bishop said the delays in the issuance of the work permits in Catholic run schools affect education standards of the institutions.

Children from all faith attend the schools.