Tap Goodall’s wisdom to resolve Judiciary crisis -Phoya
Former Attorney General and Minister of Justice Henry Phoya has called on government to “tap the wisdom” of cabinet minister Goodall Gondwe on how it can resolve the current Judiciary junior staff strike.
“We cannot afford to have a non-functioning judicial arm of government,” Phoya who recently joined Malawi Congress Party (MCP) said.
“A government cannot be called a functional government when one of its arm is not functioning,” the Blantyre rural east MP added.
Phoya said when he was Minister of Justice in Mutharika administration, he worked very closely with the then Finance Minister Goodall Gondwe to avert judiciary strike in 2007.
“We did every possible to avert similar situation,” he said during Wednesday Daybreak Malawi programme on Capital FM.
He asked the government to “tap the wisdom that is there in honourable Goodall Gondwe to resolve the issue of the judiciary.”
Gondwe is now minister of energy.
Phoya informed that with Gondwe, they “worked tirelessly to ensure the judiciary should not come to halt and we succeeded in that.”
He said the current strike is impinging on the workers’ rights of economic activity.
Malawi Law Society (MLS) president John-Gift Mwakhwawa said government has no excuse for failing to raise the K1.2 billion (about $7.2 million) for paying salary arrears for the Judiciary staff dating back to 2006.
Justice Minister Ephraim Chiume said striking Judiciary workers did not deserve the salary increment they were fighting for because their conditions of service are determined by the Judicial Service Commission, not those approved in 2006.
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