The controversial transfer of Malawi Police Commissioner Richard Luhanga, who has been moved from the Southern Region to the Northern Region, has brought hot debate and resistance in the North.
Over the weekend, police ordered the transfer of a number of officers from the South including the head of the helm in the region.
It is believed that the transferring follows the blockage of President Lazarus Chakwera’s convoy by some Blantyre residents on Saturday.
Reacting to the development, a number of the youths and non-governmental organizations in the North including Youth for Action Campaign (YAC) have described the transfer as an insult to the north.
Executive director of YAC, Jackson Msiska, whose organization has penned Ministry of Homeland Security and police, said while the citizens in the region are used to such insults, they were not expecting this from the Tonse Alliance govt especially because of its campaign promises.
Msiska told this publication that citizens in the region expected that the region would be respected under Lazarus Chakwera’s administration.
“We are just part of the grouping that is against the transferring of commissioner of police in the south to the north. We understand that his transferring is because of the presidential convoy blockage,” said Msiska.
“If workers within the civil service are transferred to the north as punishment, how will they connect the region with government? People who connect government and citizens are the same civil servants. And if the area has more unwanted civil servants it means it will have no development.”
Msiska said together with other concerned organizations, they have already penned the Ministry of Homeland Security and Police over the same.
Steve Simsokwe, a renowned youth activist in the region, while concurring with Msiska said the transfer of Luhanga has come at time a when number of Chakwera’s campaign promises in the Northern Region are yet to be fulfilled.
Simsokwe said Chakwera and his government were supposed to remove the negative picture associates with the region.
“We have been witnessing the transferring of irresponsible District Commissioners and other senior off to the region. I think it is high time we deal with this,” he added.
National police spokesperson Peter Kalaya described the transferring as normal and vehemently denied reports that it was because of the fracas which happened in Blantyre during the President’s journey to Democratic Republic of Congo.
“The transferring is normal. And that is a routine as far as police strategy to boost security in the country is concerned. The story that it is because of what happened in Blantyre is fake,” he said.
