Vice President Saulos Chilima has told Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (MACRA) to stop acting like a regulator of politics.
During a meeting with MACRA management on Wednesday, Chilima said MACRA should depoliticise and its employees should start working as professionals.
“I am appalled with the way MACRA has been operating and conducting itself over the years. I have told the management team that they are a regulator of communications and not politics. I have warned management to immediately de-politicize. I have told them that in this administration of His Excellency Dr. Lazarus Chakwera, they must free themselves from political bondage and work as professionals,” said Chilima.
Minister of Information Gospel Kazako who was also part of the meeting rebuked the wastage of financial resources at the institution.
Kazako vowed to move earth and mountain to ensure that MACRA is sanitized through a process that will include replacement of staff who were caught in the web of toxic politics at the expense of serving Malawians.
MACRA during the meeting presented a number of reforms aimed at availing affordable ICT services to the people of Malawi.
The reform areas include dynamic spectrum pricing, introduction of smart cities where service delivery within the city should be e-driven with free Wi-Fi hot spots in designated areas as well as the National Addressing Project which has seen postal codes already gazetted and developed.
Chilima noted that the progress is commendable in some areas. He, however, suggested that MACRA should have a discussion with Malawi Posts Corporation (MPC) over MPC’s 120 post offices across the country that have become non-economic.
He said: “Through a proper business synergy, these post offices could be turned into MACRA’s tele-centres while keeping some core postal services with MACRA paying for rentals to MPC.”
