Four families of people who were working at Chikoko Bay state residence in Mangochi have spent the past few weeks in an unfinished house after they were evicted from institutional houses by people alleged to be Malawi Congress Party (MCP) members.
On 22nd May, 2022, government through a memo from the Office of the President and Cabinet, announced the redeployment of about 136 employees from State House to Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).
Later, 99 concerned employees who included security officers, gardeners and housekeepers, some of whom joined the State Residences in 1992, obtained a court injunction restraining government from transferring them to other duty stations but it was reportedly vacated.
In March this year, the Industrial Relations Court (IRC) in Blantyre dismissed an application by the concerned 99 State House staff for sustenance of their injunction.
IRC chairperson Austin Msowoya, said the court arrived at the decision to discharge the interim relief on grounds of failure by lawyer representing police officers to appear in court which he said was disrespectful to the authority of the court.
Following the dismissal of the application sustaining the injunction, Malawi24 understands that four families at Chikoko Bay State Residence in Mangochi, were last month evicted from institutional houses by a team of people who they alleged to be members of MCP.
One of the victims who opted for anonymity, told us that on the material date, a team of 16 people broke into their four institutional houses and threw out everything before locking the houses saying they were to be occupied by new staff.
“It was a bad experience to be honest. They broke into our houses, they were 16 in number, thus including drivers who ferry our belongings to police where they were returned. One child went missing for a day and as we are talking, we can’t trace our other belongings.
“These were not government officials. Others came from Lilongwe. They want to replace us at the state residence with MCP members, and the same day, party members occupied the houses,” said the source.
The source continued by revealing that the four families are still sharing rooms in an unfinished house where they say are experiencing “worst days of their lives”.
“As we are talking, we are still staying in unfinished house. We are 19 in total, that is including our children, so you can imagine the situation, we are sharing bathroom and toilet made of glasses,” added the source.
In a separate interview with this publication, Simeon Nyirenda who is the chairperson of the concerned staff, described the eviction as a clear display of harassment and said the move is politically motivated.
Nyirenda said the victims had been reluctant to move out of the institutional houses because their counterpart failed to serve them with official transfer letters and a court judgement on the vacation of their injunction which they have been demanding.
“They are claiming to have vacated our injunction which stopped them from transferring us, but why are they failing to serve us with the court judgement? We also demanded transfer letters which they are failing to provide. So, this is politically motivated, but we will keep on pushing until justice prevails,” said Nyirenda.
Nyirenda further said it is very surprising that while State House authorities are insisting to have redeployed them, they are at the same time still receiving their monthly salary as State House employees.
The chairperson has since asked human rights organisations to intervene on the matter arguing the redeployment process has been marred with “unfair treatment” which he says is a violation of labour guidelines.
When asked about the way forward of the matter, lawyer for the concerned state residence staff Luciano Meckeus told Malawi24 that after the IRC discharged the order of the interim relief, they approached the High Court which he said is yet to make a decision.
He, however, expressed worry that the interim order was vacated without involving his clients, a development which he described as very surprising.
“The injunction was vacated, but it was vacated without noticing the party that had applied for it. We went back to ask the very same court to reinstate it, unfortunately the IRC never granted our order.
“Now considering the urgency of the matter which has over stayed in the IRC, we have moved it to the High Court to intervene on the same. So as of now we are waiting for the decision or direction by the High Court,” explained Mickeus.
Recently, Presidential Press Secretary Anthony Kasunda told the local media that the concerned staff were redeployed to MDAs which he said means they are all no longer employees of the state house.
Kasunda further indicated that all the redeployed staff were procedurally conveyed to their new duty stations by the employer and he described as false reports that the concerned staff at Chikoko Bay were harassed.
