Malawi National Bus employees go without pay on Christmas

Over 400 employees at National Bus Service in Malawi are celebrating Christmas festive without a two month pay of November and December.

The government has an 11 percent stake in the private company.

The government has managed to pay all civil servants including primary school teachers ahead of Christmas day.

Some National Bus employees from Blantyre and Lilongwe confided in Nyasa Times that they received their October pay on December 14.

Workers in Lilongwe wondered why this should be the case when the company collects over K250,000 a day in gate collections for buses at Lilongwe Bus depot following a memorandum of understanding with the government that runs up to 2019.

The workers said they do not expect pay before new year, January 1, 2016.

Mulli Brothers is the majority shareholder in the company withh as 64 percent stake, millionaire Bishop Simama has 13 percent shareholding and Noel Masangwi, a Democratic Progressive Party legislator has a 12 percent shareholding in the company.

Finance minister Goodall Gondwe said he did not know about financial woes at the bus company but said the government wants to pull out of the company.

Leston Mulli, executive director of Mulli Brothers, the majority shareholder was not picking his call on Christmas Day.