MIJ staff strike, knocks radio off air
Work in the MIJ FM studios and newsrooms grounded to a halt on Tuesday, forcing the radio to shut down, Nyasa Times has learnt.
The staff lay down their tools, demanding a 50 percent salary increment with “immediate effect” and the radio went off-air around 5pm.
According to an inside source, MIJ management promised a salary increment to junior staff, following the devaluation of the Malawi kwacha, but they have not lived to their promise.
“They promised a salary increment to cushion us from the effects of the devaluation, but up to now they haven’t done anything,” said the source, who pleaded for anonymity.
Another source further told Nyasa Times that workers are opposing management’s decision to start closing the radio at 9:00pm instead of the current midnight.
The source alleged that though the management is failing to hike salaries for the broadcasters and other support staff, the institution’s acting director Daliso Nkunika “just bought a K17 million KIA Sorento” vehicle.
Nyasa Times sources further claimed that MIJ also engaged the services of former Football Association of Malawi general secretary Roosevelt Mpinganjira as commercial manager, “and they bought a brand new Ford Focus car for him.”
When Nyasa Times contacted the acting director, Nkunika, she said she was not aware of the strike and the radio shut down.
“I think maybe you should talk to the people who informed you, I’m not aware of that”, she said, before she hanged up the phone.
MIJ was established in 1995 in order to improve the quality of journalism in Malawi and runs both the radio and a school in journalism.
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