Journalists yet to get their SADC Summit reporting workshop allowances
Scores of journalists who attended a three-day training workshop on Southern African Development Community (SADC) Summit reporting in Salima are yet to get their daily subsistence allowances (DSAs), close to a month after the training and 10 days after the summit.
The development has raised fear and suspicion among the concerned journalists that officials at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation might have swindled the money.
The Ministries of Information and Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation organized the training workshop with funding from German Technical Cooperation (GIZ).
Prior to the training, officials from the two ministries advised the invited journalists to provide their bank account details, which they duly did.
The official indicated that GIZ would deposit US$120 into the bank account of each of the invited journalist.
The amount would cater for transport, meals and accommodation.
However, this did not happen until the date of arrival on 29 July 2021. The officials assured the journalists that their allowances would be deposited into their accounts the following day.
This, too, was another blue lie! Fed up with false promises and endless assurances, journalists on Friday demanded that they talk to GIZ themselves to find out what is causing the delay in disbursing the allowances.
But an official from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Evelyn Nyerere, yet again assured them that the Accounts Officer from GIZ was at the bank depositing the cash.
“Afternoon, am told that the Accounts Officer is at the bank now. So a good number will get the notifications this evening and others mawa [tomorrow] and others on Monday depending on your banks,” announced Nyerere, much to the excitement of the depressed journalists.
She maintained that the money has not been swindled.
“The money is coming from GIZ not from government,” she said.
But by close of business on Friday, none of the over 40 journalists has received such a notification. The status quo remains the same to date.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Eisenhower Mkaka, did not pick our calls when we sought his comment on the matter.
The Minister of Information Gospel Kazako assured that he would take up the matter with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation.
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Journalists make their money by selling news. They always on the hunt for newsworthy events. The summit/workshop was a newsworthy event. Their print houses pay them for the news that they submit. Malawi’s journalists are spoilt lot. They expect allowances everytime they come to cover an event. Yet the sale of the news items pays them. It’s only in Malawi where you call a journalist to do press coverage.
Most of GIZ sponsored meetings are full board. Meaning that accommodations and meals are paid direct to the hotel. If this was the case then somebody somewhere is not telling the truth.