Malawian President Prof. Peter Mutharika has cautioned foreign employers from making racist remarks.
President Mutharika threatened to deport any foreign employer that makes discriminatory remarks or treats Malawians with no respect at work place or anywhere in the country, according to the Press release by the Malawi Government.
“Any foreign employer who mistreats Malawians in any way will be sent out of this country, as long as I am President of the country…We need to respect each other if we are to live in harmony,” said Mutharika to a delegation of Malawi Congress of Trade Unions (MCTU) at Kamuzu Palace in Lilongwe.
This follows reports of a German employer a Manager in a construction firm in northern Malawi who was deported for allegedly calling a water tanker driver at a site in Nkhata Bay “a monkey” due to the driver’s reported poor driving.
However MCTU President, Luther Mambalacalled upon the president to intervene by instructing the Ministry of labour to ensure that every work place has a workers’ union to be a check-point on such matters. Since the Union was receiving more complaints from Malawi employees that they were being mistreated by their foreign employers.
“I know there are some employers who treat their workers as if they are in the year 1894 when workers did not have rights. May I remind them, that this is 2017, and this is Malawi. We now have a government that believes and protects the rights of workers. Let us all, employers and employees, fulfill our duties and our responsibilities,” Mutharika said.
The President added that introduction of community technical colleges by his government was geared to impart skills in Malawians with the aim of boosting labour force, according to Malawi 24.
The Malawi government has deliberate policies aimed at wooing foreign investors in a bid to boost the country’s economy through foreign direct investment. Campaign has seen more foreign investors trekking to the sub-Saharan country for huge investment deals in the areas of agriculture, health, education, hospitality and infrastructure, among others.
