‘Like a ‘slay queen’ Tonse Alliance has duped Malawians’, priest weighs in on Catholic bishops letter
Karonga Diocese cleric, Father Robert Songa, has not minced words in lambasting the Tonse Alliance, saying the nine-party team “is indeed a slay queen that has badly duped Malawians with sheer lip service.”
According to some online definitions, the term ‘slay queen’ refers to a young female gold digger who usually likes to show off on social media.
Songa, who is also Karonga Diocese’s pastoral secretary and Bishop Martin Mtumbuka’s secretary, said it was unfortunate that Tonse sweet-talked Malawians during campaign just for votes.
“Malawians were promised a heaven-on-earth kind of life if they voted them into power. They were promised cheap fertilizers, speed trains…but nothing of that sort is happening.
“Things have become worse. Their behaviour during campaign was that of a slay queen who, I am told, simply plays whatever tricks to milk men. It is very unfortunate,” Songa said during a special programme on Tuesday aired on the Diocese’s Tuntufye FM Radio.
In the programme, which also featured Father Charles Chinula and Louis Nkhata, the Diocese’s Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace (CCJP) coordinator, Songa said it was high time the current leadership started walking their talk.
“Just like they have done before, the bishops have issued this pastoral letter, because they are concerned with what is happening. It is therefore up to the leaders to listen and start working on the issues raised.
“It would be foolhardy for them to simply appear before a state-broadcaster and say they have noted the concerns raised by the bishops. They need to act,” he said.
In corroboration, Nkhata bemoaned the unprecedented levels of inequality in Malawi and added that the Tonse Alliance had a big task to bring to a halt such ills as nepotism, equal distribution of resources especially in the areas of education and agriculture.
“The teacher-pupil ratio is absurd in our schools, especially rural areas, and this continues to hamper the quality of our education. With the farming season approaching, it is already evident, at this time, that government is not prepared at all,” Nkhata said.
And, taking his turn, Father Chinula asked the Tonse Alliance “to listen and focus” on improving the welfare of Malawians.
On Monday, the Episcopal Conference of Malawi (ECM) released a pastoral statement in which they expressed discontent with government’s lack of action on recommendations made in their previous Pastoral letter.
Among others, the statement, titled ‘A Call to Hearken to the Cry of Poor Malawians’, decries lack of consistency in the austerity measures, government’s silence on the Affordable Inputs Program(AIP), the Tonse Alliance’s retrogressive governance as well as institutional failure.
The Bishops have also questioned the current administration’s way of fighting corruption and why the vice is continuing to grow against the Tonse’s campaign promises.
On Tuesday, Minister of Information and government spokesperson, Gospel Kazako, said they would address the concerns raised by the Catholic bishops.
“We will continue listening and this is one of the things that we will be looking at very seriously,” said Kazako.
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