Processing of Driving Licenses in Malawi: A lost SME Business Opportunity

In December 2012, I spent a total of 7 hours (in two days) in Malawi simply trying to renew my expired Driver’s License. Assuming my salary was K1 million a month, the 7 hours of idleness, sharing groundnuts and jokes with “dobadobas” translates into a K40,000 (£75) which would be counted as a loss to an employer. Multiply this loss with the number of people experiencing such inefficiencies every day! It will give you an idea of how much our economy is losing. Then add similar inefficiencies in banks, passport office, courts, other Government service offices, supermarkets, churches, funerals, etc! A basic review of the processes that take place at the Road Traffic Office, one wonders why the Government even talks about championing promotion of small and medium enterprises, when an opportunity to create small businesses is wasted by such high level Government centralization. The love for centralization in Malawi of simple processes has created a healthy breeding ground for corruption which at the Road Traffic has translated into the “dobadoba industry”. I am informed that the “dobadobas” that I called “local consultants” form part of a complex “processing chain” involving the Road Traffic employees. The employees who process the paper work connive with the “dobadobas” and the fees clients pay to dobadobas are shared with the Government employees. The only reason this rotten system is not changing is that all high level persons, (Ministers, MPs, Judges, Principal Secretaries, political party officials etc.) use a parallel system to have their licenses renewed. As the drama unfolded when I was processing my license, I relayed my experience on Facebook. What struck me off was the level of tolerance that we Malawians have towards mediocre. I was advised to abandon the plebeians and go to the “headquarters” of Road Traffic. Someone wrote, “Wati, You are a senior official at the Commonwealth Secretariat and you were once Chief Executive of MIPA. Go to the Head office and they will process your papers faster”. I refused, not because I did not want the luxury, but because there were a lot of people who were not in my privileged position who were going to queue up for more than 5 hours and they had equally important things to do. Having arrived at Road Traffic Office at about 07.50am, I got my “Temporary License” at 12.45pm with the help of a Dobadoba who I paid K3, 000. I am sure this was duly shared with his masters. Apart from the fact that it is silly for whole Government to have only one camera for processing licenses, there is no need for Government to hold a monopoly on the processing of driving licenses. Here is a free consultancy on how the system could be improved and in the process creating a number of formalized small businesses (not vendors). 1. The application/renewal forms should be put online and/or collected from any Government department, post office or bank at a fee; 2. Government should encourage on-line applications; (this will create jobs for internet cafes, studios etc.). Those renewing licenses can make a payment at a post office or bank and the receipt number for payment will be appended on the online application. 3. The Government should give specifications for photographs required and small businesses will open up studios to supply the photos – including electronic copies (based on the specs). 4. The printing of the licenses should be contracted out to several companies that will operate as licensed agents; 5. The processing of a renewal should not take more than 5 days and once you have submitted application online and paid, a confirmation number can be used as proof of renewal as you await your license; By undertaking these simple steps, there will be no need for anyone to go to offices of road traffic at all and we will have broken the corruption cartel that has been formed. Please let us not hear you have formed a Committee to review this. Just do it. Down with Dobadobas and their masters.

China's engagement in Africa and "Neo-colonialism"

I will start with two important premises. First, if you truly want to bring development to your people, then you cannot be dogmatic about your bed-partners. Secondly, the saying goes, "China's aid comes with no strings attached". Well, maybe the issue is what strings are attached and what those strings mean in the long run. I want to look at aid from the perspective of the provider on one hand and the recipient on the other. More often than not recipients of aid look at short-term benefits. Multiparty politics especially in Africa, has re-defined development to mean a 4-5 year life span in which you have to show results if your party has to stand a chance of re-election. This means that dealing with western donors becomes a pain if they have concerns in the country's governance. Western donors' interests are varied. They peg aid against specific policy direction the country is supposed to adhere to, usually based on principles of good governance, respect for human rights, running democratic institutions etc. This is also pegged to creating high level, white collar jobs for the donor countries (Consultants, Advisers, suppliers of specific equipment and other services etc). Their approval processes are deliberately long as funds pledged can be spread across many years. For example, under the IMF Extended facility loans can be disbursed over a 3-4 year period after fulfilling specific conditions. That is a whole lifetime of a political term of office. The World Bank and DFID (UK Aid) have specific aid approval procedures such as pre-appraisal, appraisal, negotiations, Board consideration, Parliament ratification and procurement procedures that can run for months if not years. There is no guarantee that the process would be completed within the political life cycle. What then is the interest of the Western donors when giving aid? First, they are employed to do that and their jobs depends on making it difficult for poorer countries to get soft loans (World Bank, IMF) and the organisations getting significant returns from the loans. Second, they are employed to serve their masters' political interest which includes creating jobs for their constituencies as well as protecting their long-term economic, social and military interests (e.g. DFID, AUSAID, USAID, NORAD, etc.). Western aid is still based on the “Bible” and Gun” model which was used to colonize and extract resources from poor developing nations especially in Africa. Enters China……

China is a country of more than 1.3 billion people and run by a Communist politburo of 25 persons. It has become the world's utmost manufacturing factory supplying all the world's needs at different prices. China’s factories can supply goods across the population spectrum, from the richest to the poorest man in the world. To achieve this, it needs massive resources both renewable and non-renewable. China has its own "Bible" which is the Gospel according to Beijing. Whereas western countries used the Bible and religion to soften hearts of Africans, China uses their Bible and religion to discipline its own people. Their religion teaches them that political, social, cultural, economic agendas are inter-twined and if used properly can service the 1.3 billion people in China. Their model of engagement with Africa is based on this religion. Their “Gun” is the cash and their “Bible” is the “Chinese system”. They have observed over the years the low productivity, low skills, indiscipline labour force of most African countries. They have observed the lack of interest and participation of the African diaspora intellectuals in their countries’ development. They have observed the vulnerability of most Africa governments/leadership when it comes to political stability. They have observed the short term political expediency of African states. They have observed the greedy nature of Africa's political leadership. Their aid model therefore aims at achieving the following 3 key elements and objectives. • Maximum Extraction of resources in the shortest possible time for their own consumption as well as for supplying their factories to process, produce and sell consumer products into the global market; • In return for resources, meet the short term and selfish needs of African political leadership by constructing quality infrastructure (mainly non-productive) within a short period of time. They can only achieve this by using their own cheap but highly productive and disciplined labor resources (there are many claims that China use prisoners) and high work ethics; and • Create a market for their own goods through use of Chinese traders who live a simple low-cost life in host countries, retain Chinese community traditions, fully exploit weaknesses in the systems of their host country and more importantly form strong Chinese collaborative networks/supply chains. This model has helped China to become the world's "Cash Kings" (in 2012 it is reported that China has stock-piled over US$3 trillion in foreign currency reserves)

Is this Neo-colonialism? Certainly it is. Neocolonialism is defined as "the use of political, economic and cultural or other pressures to control or influence other countries especially former dependencies". China has avoided adopting the "outdated Bible and Gun model" used by multilateral or western bilateral donors. This is still based on colonialism hangover and the fact that Western donors hold excessive power in all major global institutions. But their power is slowly diminishing and somehow limited because of the many interest groups that have emerged in the western countries. China however is not accountable to any “noisy tax payers” or interest groups such as those monitoring violation of human rights. Their political system and "religion" teaches them to trust their leadership and it’s designed to keep its population disinterested in external matters. China's dominance over the raw material base, supply chains and logistics now gives it a huge political power in many countries and basically re-colonised as they are the owners of Africa’s wealth. Should Africa be concerned at all? Africa should be concerned that its leadership has not learnt anything from colonialism. China cares less about Africa’s development. China does not care how Africa will look like 50 years from now. China fully understands that most of the infrastructure it is creating in Africa is non-productive. The infrastructure will soon collapse as maintenance is non-existent in vocabulary of most African governments. China knows Africa is not a competitor. In exploiting the resources, China understands that Africa is less frenzied about the environmental catastrophe it is creating. To China, Africa is still sleeping and its leaders myopic and its intellectuals forgiving and unconcerned. Unfortunately none of the African bodies seem to understand this. How can they understand when African Union Headquarters proudly sits in a Chinese gift in Addis? When a man builds a house for your wife, you should know that you are in trouble. You no longer own her. We can neither describe China or Western donors as Africa’s angels. They both have same objectives of owning resources and extracting as much as possible. There is need for African countries to come to their senses and design new models that will make Africa a credible partner. It does not matter whether the deal is with China or Western donors. What matters is the recognition that as a group our continent has countless resources and God has favoured us with a brain. But it seems we don't want to use it at all! What happened to NEPAD?

Mountain too High (Part 3)

I had an opportunity to talk to someone from the donor community who gave a perspective that sobered me up. This was completely the opposite from the vibes we got in the first months of JB’s reign. He summarized it as follows when I asked him reasons for donor withdrawal or delays in disbursements; “For over 5 years, as donors we tried to make Bingu make changes to a number of areas where we had concerns. We hit a blank wall and with each day he grew even more stubborn. Within weeks of JB coming into power, she said yes to everything we suggested. We should have been smart enough to know that she did not mean it. Most of us are now waiting for 2014”. What is this uncaring conduct? Given the state of the economy, perhaps people would like to see a leader that spends more time sitting in her office, thinking, analyzing issues, receiving briefings and studying reports, strategizing on the direction of the economy. She needs time to understand what is happening in country and get a feel of the direction of her partners. People on the ground argue that JB has spent the last 5 months jumping from one meeting to the next and attending functions that are of no consequence. They give an example of a meeting that took place the day I arrived in Malawi when she had Sunday prayers with Lilongwe women and later a “drinking party” with women civil servants. They reasoned that as the next day she was welcoming the Nigerian President, surely she could have spent the Sunday with her team to strategise on the Nigerian President’s visit. Some people argue that JB has fallen in love with peripheral activities which are of no consequence to the challenges Malawi is facing. I am sure it was not my arrival but fuel shortages were back in Malawi. Queues were back at least in Lilongwe. Discussions in pubs indicate growing discontent and lack of confidence in JB. They say, "JB has no agenda. She works up in the morning and waits for calls of which Chief to elevate, which public function to attend. Then they gave me a typical JB diary of meeting Chiefs, mediating or negotiating over wage demands etc. Someone summarized JB as follows: “She seems clueless as to what is happening around and what it means to be a President. She is trying but failing to strike a right balance between being and not being Kamuzu; Bakili; and Bingu. She has a bit of all but failing to make the most of the best”. My take is that JB can reverse this situation very easily because she has no credible challenger among the opposition. But she quickly needs to put her house in order. She needs to get a completely new economic and governance team that concentrates on managing the economy and not enjoying the honeymoon of the perks. She blundered by appointing a Vice President who is non-technical. She should have borrowed a leaf from Italy when Mr. “Bunga Bunga Berlusconi was replaced by Mario Monti as Prime Minister. The challenge was the economy and not the politics. JB’s team is all about politics. Time is however running out for JB. Her many admirers and sympathisers are now in doubt of her abilities and have lost confidence in her and the PP Government. They say, “The Mountain is Too High for JB”. But is it?

Mountain too High (Part 2)

My short spell in Malawi was very revealing. Let me start with more of the same. Kenya Airways and South Africa airways landed almost at the same time at Kamuzu International Airport. Congestion followed in the arrival hall. I have to admire those immigration officers who have to manually fill in arrival details of passengers on plain sheets of paper with lines drawn using a ruler. I asked this fellow what they do with the papers. He smiled and said "we take them back and transfer this information on yet other papers and then we destroy the originals". Many countries have gone electronic but the poor Malawi Immigration have to manually collect data whilst computers are in many public "bosses" offices covered with " zidoyilo". Minister of Home Affairs, please, let's see change. It is very easy to computerise your systems. We are in modern times. I arrived a day before Jonathan Good-luck arrived in Lilongwe. PP zealots in their “orange colours” were up early on Monday morning to welcome the Nigerian leader. Old habits die hard. Orange flags were flying alongside the Malawian and Nigerians flags along the route. Motorists were in shock on Monday morning as roads were closed and many people were only able to arrive in their office after 09am. I wondered why roads were even closed. Leading a nation of 15 million people should fairly be an easy task especially if the majority of these people live in the rural area and their key needs are mainly basic necessities. After all, Malawians are known as "docile" people, less militant and our anger quickly wears out. This does not seem to be the case for President Joyce Banda (JB). Barely 5 months after occupying Plot No. 1, the economy, is struggling with voices of disgruntlement growing by the day. The noticeable challenges include; increase in prices of basic commodities, fuel price increase, re-emergence of fuel queues, runaway inflation; dissatisfied low and middle-class; poor tobacco season, 1.2 million people facing hunger; etc. Many observers argue that JB and her People’s Party have no vision for Malawi and that what we are seeing is a “Subsistence Government”. In all fairness, JB inherited an economy that was on its knees (if not on its back) and the country was almost bankrupt. The last half of 2011 and prior to Bingu’s demise we saw an increase in Central Government accessing funds from the banking system to finance domestic activities owing to reduced donor flows and heavy Bingu commitments. She inherited a country with foreign exchange crisis, electricity and water crisis, fuel crisis, human capacity problem with low labour productivity. There is no dispute that Malawi had to devalue the Kwacha and had to quickly transit from a fixed exchange regime which was a complete misfit to the realities of the economy. The argument is not about the devaluation but rather about technical matters, timing and sequencing. There was also no illusion that the devaluation of kwacha was going to have a major impact on incomes and livelihood of the majority of the people. Although those voicing concern are mainly blaming JB’s inability to protect consumers from effects of devaluation, the reality is that JB could not do much to cushion this pain, nor could she intervene to make fuel prices remain stable. Perhaps it is the uncaring conduct and statements being made by JB and her lieutenants that is fueling anger and sentiments from people like John Kapito

Mountain too High (Part 1)

I was in Swaziland and had just missed the reed dance. Muluzi beat me to it. As i landed at Manzini airport, the bare breasted maidens were leaving for their various homes after entertaining the men of Africa and guests. I could just imagine Bakili's smile on seeing a mixture of makanda and D7s. Although reed dance is a celebration of virginity, in Swaziland virginity is defined as "Women who have not given birth before". So the bare breasted maidens you see are mostly "virgins in a Swazi way" Air Malawi From Swaziland, I missed my SA flight to Malawi (probably preoccupied with annoyance after missing the reed dance) and I had to turn to Air Malawi. The Johannesburg staff were very helpful and managed to get me a seat. "We fly on Saturdays to Blantyre but this week we will fly on Sunday", they told me to my amusement. "Ndi mini bus"? I mused. Then the shocker came. I wanted a one way ticket and it was going to cost me US$840! I was told all cheap seats were taken!

Forget it. I turned back to SA. I finally managed to get a business class ticket on SA which I got cheaper than flying our mother QM. Well cheaper, because I also used my miles on SA. On my flight to Malawi, I sat with the cream of Malawi. That is when the stories started about what is happening at home. I heard that the management of the new Chinese hotel and conference centre, which had been given to Sunbird, will be given back to a South African company that initially won the bid. The PP Government had rescinded the decision of DPP Government to award management contract to the South African company. I was actually surprised that PP Government had given this mammoth task to Sunbird who cannot even manage the small hotels that they are currently managing. I still give PP credit for realising their mistake. Of course the SA Company will now have a stronger bargaining position. The infrastructure looks beautiful. Time will tell how we utilise "Bingu colour dream" which of course is part of the reason our economy is bleeding and our debt has grown considerably in the last 5 years. I was keen to understand more on our approach to tourism. Well Press Corporation had "colour dreams" of turning Cape Maclear into tourism Mecca. What surprised me is that Malawi’s tourism strategy seems to be based on 5 star infrastructures (hotels) and yet we don't have 5 star entertainment, services, customer service, human resources etc. Take for example Mangochi. As a tourist, what can keep me for than 1 day in Mangochi? Day 1, I swim and go to watch birds and watch nyau dancers. After that I might as well leave. Our strategy also does not include domestic family tourism. In my view the Cape Maclear Press Corporation project will fail unless the whole model is changed. Press Corporation could be the anchor investor but the concept and model should include many small Malawi investors and thus each takes a small risk and benefit from a fuller concept. This works like the "Shopping Mall" concept. I was however glad to hear about the initiative at Majete Game reserve. For the first time, we have the Big 5 at Majete. I hear over 100 elephants were moved from Mangochi to Majete and that facilities have been upgraded. I will be keen to hear from those that have visited.

JB’s first Cabinet through Chihoro Eyes

22 ministers and 8 deputies, 9 women in cabinet of 31: Great! The new Malawi President promised a broad-based and inclusive Cabinet. Thumbs up! By the way, I still believe we can have a cabinet of only 10 Ministers and 5 Deputies (comprising 10 women and 5 men). Perhaps that is the goal PP Government should set. It makes Malawi sense. Double Thumbs up because none of the “Midnight Six” are in the team. That is a smart move. Personally, I would have been very disappointed if any of the midnight six had been retained. Forgiveness does not mean shoving history under the carpet. Midnight Six and their masters need to tell Malawians what led to the “Easter Madness”. How do we believe that it was “confusion and stupidity” when we do not know what led to the confusion and stupidity? Surely we have all lost our loved ones and I dare ask, what acts did we do which could be labeled as confusion and stupidity? I just see greed and lack of accountability. Let the “Midnight Six” show their love for, and faithfulness to Malawi by revealing what actually happened? The Cabinet will be as good as the system in which the players will operate. The men and women appointed are human beings and some of those appointed were part of mess and abuse years back. That is not to suggest they don’t deserve another chance. But if they will be allowed to operate in the same system-less Government or porous system, if they will still operate as “masters rather than servants”, if they will not allow civil service to be professional, if they will retain a system of patronage through tribal affiliation, language, sect, religion of other means, if they will be forgiven before telling the nation what they should be forgiven for, ….., I dare say, we would have taken 1 step forward and 3 steps backwards, and we will be back screaming and complaining of betrayal. What we now need is for the Ministers to sign a “contract” with Malawians. Ministers should be accountable to Malawians and they should sign a pact that makes them accountable to Malawians. They should tell us what their Ministries will achieve (outcomes and not outputs). My hope is that they will be put through a “training programme” not the “silly familiarization tours” but should be trained and given “Ministerial Standards”. Why did we create MIM after all? This is important because, unfortunately we have “old dogs” with “old tricks” and these will bring their misguided understanding of the meaning of “Honourable Minister” (driven in black Mercedes Benz and grab as much as you can from the system). We also have “young dogs” and these watched from the outside and believe being “Honourable Minister” is what they saw and heard. Once standards are set and they have signed “a contract” we will have a measure through which we can call them to account. If they are called to account and they fail the test, they should resign or be fired. Since in politics there are no permanent enemies and compromises can easily be made especially as we come towards elections, we need to have real “Chief Executives” of watchdog organisations such as Anti-Corruption Bureau and others that are independent and accountable to the people of Malawi. These CEOs will need guaranteed tenure and resources. My one proposal to new Cabinet is that they need to re-engage with people in diaspora. Malawi has many needs that those in diaspora can play a role in meeting those needs. Whereas the current dotted Malawi Associations are great for social interaction, Government needs to encourage people in diaspora to form meaningful professional “intelligentsia networks” that will feedback to Government on various opportunities. This could include in areas of science and technology, education, health, partnerships, markets for products, human resources, business, investors, bilateral relations etc. Such engagement will automatically make people in diaspora feel closer to Malawi and will stimulate the flow of remittances. The appointment of professional and visionary High Commissioners and diplomats is critical. I wish HE. JB and her newly appointed Cabinet every success. Your success is our success

Of Roadshow and Body viewing Malawi style.

There is a famous saying in Zambia that "you know that you are Zambian if upon seeing a Hearse carrying a coffin, you quickly pull aside, get out of your car and bow in respect of the dead and when you see an Ambulance with flashing lights, rushing to hospital you ignore it, block its way and keep driving and remark,  ninshi bakalamba?

I think this idea of "Body roadshow" is really not necessary. It all started with death of our former first lady and now it has become a Malawian tradition for fallen VVIP. I hope this will be the last one. 

To really pay respect to the dead, we need to take care of the living. We can do that by ensuring the living do not die unnecessarily due to our own selfish and greedy motives. 

To pay respect is to allow those grieving to be given the necessary privacy to allow them to rebuild their lives whilst celebrating lives of the departed. The torture endured by the widow in this case the former first lady by sitting besides her dead husband as people file to view the body for 2 weeks should not be allowed. It must be the longest two weeks she has ever had in her life.

To pay respect to the dead is not by releasing more carbon in the atmosphere by flying body all over for people to view, scream and faint. With all the technology, people could have viewed body on large screens in their areas. 

To pay respect to the dead is not spending more resources which the poor and living need, by doing what we have done as a country which includes concealing the body and flying a dead body to South Africa.

I think it's time we Malawians started to learn paying respect to the living because the dead are gone. It is a body without a soul and it's those that are living like the family members that need healing and Gods love. It is the poor that continue to suffer because we are too busy on a roadshow that need respect and support.

I am sure I will get a lot of stick, but then that is why we are in a democracy. 

In Chihoro we have our uncle known as Taratara. When a member of chihoro clan dies, he takes care of us and buries us. Thank God he has no time to parade our bodies in khuyu, vunguvungu, kaJoni, thunda, Gumi, and all those places. Immediately he buries us, he is off to his usual vunguvungu joint for mnkontho.