Malawi
Journalist wins case 36 years after being dismissed

afrol.com, 22 August - A Malawian journalist has won a case 36 years after being dismissed from his work. Boniface Masonga recently won a case in which he was challenging his dismissal from the Publications Section of the Ministry of Information in 1964. The case, which was heard before Ombudsman Enock Chibwana, resulted in the Ombudsman directing the Ministry of Information to pay Masonga his salaries in arrears since 1964. 

Masonga was arrested in December 1964 when he went to Lilongwe to cover a Malawi Congress Party (MCP) annual convention on allegations that he had distributed seditious letters for people to rebel against the MCP in Zomba. 

He was charged with publishing contrary to regulation 4(1)(b) of the 1964 Public Security Regulations. He did not author the material, but the material he was accused of publishing was in fact in mass circulation in 1964 following a cabinet crisis in which several key ministers rebelled against Dr Banda's government. These "rebels" were the ones distributing material explaining their cause, which countered government propaganda. 

The government's suspicion was that the "seditious" material was being printed by some friends to the "rebels" at the Publications Section of the Ministry of Information, where Masonga was at the time working. 

"We were charged with distributing seditious publications. I personally denied the charge before the court of law, but I was convicted in 1965 to three years imprisonment with hard labour, said Masonga, who noted that he was convicted because he had no legal representation. 

He said that when he learnt in 1996 that people who lost their jobs because of political reasons were being compensated pursuant to a circular issued by the office of the President and Cabinet (OPC), he approached several institutions in order to seek assistance, but with no success, hence he complained to the Ombudsman. 

At this stage it is not clear whether the Ministry will comply with the Ombudsman's directive, or appeal against it.

Source: Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA)

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