The Centre for Social Concern (CFSC), a social monitoring body is trending carefully with an assurance the Minister of Labour and Manpower Development Henry Mussa made that Tenancy Labour Bill will ready in the next Parliament seating, saying such promises have been made without fulfilment and hoping that this time around will carry the day.
CFSC was reacting to an assurance Mussa made over the weekend to the local press when addressing various programmes his ministry was embarking after attained the position as one of the five key ministries under DPP second coming rule in Malawi.
Minister Mussa assured the general public that the Bill was being finalised in the cabinet such that will be tabled in the next seating of Parliament with new positive changes of its name into Tenancy Wage Bill rather Tenancy Labour Bill.
Mussa said the Wage Bill will have provisions for Land Lords in estates to enter into contractual agreement with tenants on what will be produced at the end of the growing season by providing them with social amenities for their wellbeing.
“Malawians have suffered a lot in tobacco and tea estates as most Land owners take advantage of lack of laws to protect tenants. This will stop with the new law which will be tabled in the next seating of Parliament”, assures Mussa.
But, in an exclusive interview with the Maravi Post on Thursday, June 11, 2015, Mathias Kafunda, CFSC’s CFSC Economic Justice Programs Officer received the new with caution based on the previous promises the same ministry has been making for many years saying and hoping this time the Bill will see the green light.
Kafunda expressed sadness over the bill’s delay tabling in Parliament saying Many Malawians in estates were subjected to torture which needed an exiting strategies to bail them out with comprehensive laws.
“This is not the first time the ministry to make such promises however, we are giving them a chance to prove their good intentions to bail Malawians from corporal treatment encountering in estates by land owners by coming up with this legistration.
“We have been advocating this law for 13 years but nothing tangible has come out. Our stand remains that the law should provide clear guidelines for contractual agreement between a tenant and estates owners. Land Lords must oblige to provision of social amenities such as water, food, school and buying farmers their produces at recommendable prices.
“Through this law, we want see child labour eradicating in estates such that children rights are protected from such injustices. So, we are appealing to Member of Parliament to support this bill once its tabled in Parliament as its one of the important legistration towards uplifting people’s welfare and rights”, urges Kafunda.
With the slow response to tobacco and tea tenants challenges has been in dare dally on passing of Tenancy Labour Bill with several versions of the bill as the latest was 2010 Tenancy Labour Bill which cabinet nearly approved end of 2011 but the death of Former President Bingu wa Muthalika in 2012 disrupted the whole process as he showed total commitment on the law.
However, towards, the end of 2013, the Joyce Banda regime made reservation to pursue further the enacted of the tenancy Labour Bill on the grounds that enacting such a bill would legitimise forced labour and that the sector was modernising in the way that employment of tenancy labour would be self-eradicated as estate owners graduate into employment of hired labour and wage workers.
Surprisingly, Malawi is continuing with this oppressive system of labour while its neighbours , Zambia, Zimbabwe of the same colonial masters who championed Thangata system of labour similarly to tenancy labour in estates graduated into wage labour where tenants are paid according to work done to produce food and cash crops with contracts attached to the farming
