By Chisomo Phiri
The leader of Citizens for Transformation(CFT) who is also the former Minister of Civic Education and National Unity Timothy Mtambo has written a letter to the newly appointed Malawi Defence Force(MDF) commander Paul Valentino Phiri expressing his concern over a number of activities by MDF soldiers at Chilumba Barracks Roadblock.
The Roadblock is one of the important roadblocks which are controlling the export of country’s Agricultural produce through the northern corridor.
In a letter, Mtambo argues that there are strong allegations leveled against the soldiers at Chilimba Barracks which include allowing some trucks with farm produce to pass through the
roadblock after paying at least K150,000,Malawian citizens not allowed to pass through the roadblock even
with a single bag of maize, some citizens who insist that they do have the right to pass with the
farm produce assaulted by soldiers.
The former Minister says, all this is happening on the background of hunger
due to the drought which hit Karonga District this year.
“Sir, people from the
district are relying on maize supplies from Rumphi, Mzimba and Kasungu
Districts.
“The conduct of the soldiers at the roadblock is therefore
compounding the hunger situation in the district.
Sir, the local leaders in the district i.e. chiefs and religious leaders have voiced
this concern to no avail.,” says Mtambo in letter.
He stresses that people of Karonga have reached a conclusion
that whatever is taking place is proof that Government has abdicated its
responsibility and is no longer caring about the hunger situation in the district.
Adds Mtambo:”You may wish to know, Sir, that at every funeral today, this has become a
talking point by chiefs and community leaders. This ought to be a cause for
concern as the confidence of the people in the army is getting eroded daily.
Sir, as you are aware, the strength of any security organ of the State is
proportional to the credibility and trust members of the general public
accord to it. Thus, given the foregoing, I am making this humble plea to your
noble office to consider reviewing the terms of reference at Chilumba
roadblock in order to allow the citizens of Karonga have access to the food
that they so desperately need to avert hunger at household and community
level.”
According to Mtambo,there could, for example, be a threshold of the quantity of produce
that a citizen could be allowed to move across the roadblock.
I do appreciate the importance of the roadblock in terms of security in the
country.
“I have nothing against this noble cause. For this reason, I would like
to recommend that the roadblock should be shifted towards the border
where the smuggling routes are. In addition, I further recommend
introduction of another check point before the Chitipa-Tanzania border as a lot of maize is being smuggled into into Tanzania through this route, ” concludes Mtambo.
On top of preventing the country’s Agricultural produce exports into other countries, Chilumba Barracks Roadblock plays a vital role in strengthen security in Malawi by preventing illegal immigrants entering from our country.
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