Malawi TenderPreneurs ...HAKE! Kasi ndi LUTING'I IYI (Is it Looting?)
It amazes me when guns go out blazing from the "holier than thou" DPP leadership calling Malawians "thugs and looters" following the July 20 demonstrations! Agreed, there is no justification for lawlessness and looting during such demonstrations, but hey, do not throw stones when you live in a glass house.
When I read South African papers about the bad boy Julius Malema and his $16 million mansion with a bunker built from a US$13,000 monthly salary, I suddenly realised that this new breed of business persons rightly called TenderPreneurs are killing Africa. Malawi has it's share of TenderPreneurs.
These TenderPreneurs (TEPs) have enriched themselves over the last couple of years under DPP Government and every single day new TEPs are emerging. TEPs emerge because political leadership need "hero worshippers" or "praise singers" who have no time to question bad policies or bad governance. They hate the country and simply love themselves. They care less of a girl from Mbwindi village who at tender age of 3, barefoot, if lucky, has one meal a day, has to help her widowed mother dig mice and carry carry out household chores instead of being in school?
In the current Malawi, it is common knowledge that Lucrative contracts are given to political loyalists, tribal affiliates and family members who overnight become rich (not wealthy) and with their briefcases full of new business cards go around the world claiming to be Malawian business elites! Remember, We had them during MCP and UDF regimes. Interestingly, many of the previous TEPs finally know where to find a shoe repairer and those posh cars have but disappeared.
Well, one would ask, what is wrong with rational beings grabbing opportunities? What is wrong is that TEPs and their promoters are simply looters. Think about it. These loyalists and those in leadership positions have been looting the public coffers willy nilly over the last couple of years with dubious businesses and projects. When they wake up in the morning, it is always about what else is available for free? 24/7 they loot and loot and loot, scheme new ways of grabbing public resources. They are simply LOOTERS. They are not ashamed to show off their newly acquired riches, building obscene houses and multiple "White elephants" that would make the truly wealthy beings wonder and blush. Their newly acquired riches makes them arrogant and in their minds they believe that they have done what Napoleon could not do. They grab whatever comes into their way, be it wives or contracts or properties?
Now, here is the irony. A simple Kawale-man, chihoro-man, mbayani-man, double-bend man, out of anger and the long-suffering due to lack of jobs and other economic opportunities joins a protest march. In the process, as they pass the high street, someone shouts, "the shop belongs to a TEPs. The marchers to pounce on the shop and help themselves to a few drugs, some bread, toothpaste, cement, sobo, blankets etc and ... Guess Who throws the first stone? The same TenderPreneurs , the same looters, the same so called leaders who have milked us clean as we watched!
July 20 was about the fight against systems that TenderPreneurs and LOOTERS have built to sustain their newly found lifestyle. They even wonder why car-less povos complain about lack of fuel or black-outs when they have no electricity in their homes.
As Malawians prepare for August 17, let us show the TEPs that we are not like them. We are a breed that is preparing for a better Malawi, where there will be no place for " LOOTERS In Leadership.
