By Emmanuel Chirwa:
HRDC Chairperson, Timothy Mtambo, said the change has been made in the interest of peace, unity and cooperation because Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) supporters have an event in Blantyre on the day protests were scheduled to take place.
“We want our demonstrations to be peaceful. We know their objective is to incite violence. They wanted people to be fighting, but we are not used to that type of life,” Mtambo said.
He said councils for Lilongwe, Blantyre, Zomba and Mzuzu have been notified of what they are calling “The first phase of demonstrations”.
HRDC has been accusing Lilongwe and Blantyre city councils of frustrating demonstrations, which were initially scheduled for Friday.
Before postponing the demonstrations, Mtambo said they wrote the two councils, informing them that they wanted to hold demonstrations, but expressed surprise that they are not getting any response.
“We wrote the city councils way back. We didn’t want to do things at the last minute but, to our surprise, they have not replied to us,” Mtambo said Monday.
He added: “Blantyre City Council and DPP have organised an event on September 7. This is aimed to deter people from participating in the demonstrations.”
However, BCC Public Relations Manager, Anthony Kasunda, refused to comment on the matter.
Lilongwe City Council Public Relations Officer, Tamara Chafunya, could not be reached on her mobile phone for comment.
HRDC announced that it would hold demonstrations following the government’s failure to respond convincingly to issues raised in a petition they delivered during the April 27 demonstrations
The civil society organisations (CSOs) are also concerned with levels of corruption and abuse of State resources, fuel embezzling at National Oil Company of Malawi and Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (Escom). They also want K145 million, which Pioneer Investments donated to DPP, to be returned to the government.
The demonstrations are supported by some opposition political parties in the country.
Malawi Congress Party general secretary, Eisenhower Mkaka, said, for the past four years, the party has been battling with the Executive to solve the challenges that have spurred CSOs to organise demonstrations, with no success.
“We fully support the demonstrations and, in our statement [recently], we encouraged our members to participate [in them]. They are to participate because they are Malawians and the issues we are propagating are for the good of Malawians,” Mkaka said.
United Transformation Movement secretary general, Patricia Kaliati, said the demonstrations are justifiable and, as a movement, they support the move.
“Most of the issues being cited by organisers of the demonstrations are what we have been raising. Take, for example, the practice of embezzling fuel at Escom. It’s pathetic that most Malawians are suffering in a country that is theirs; people are deprived of resources they are rightfully entitled to,” she said.
People’s Party secretary general, Ibrahim Matola, said the party could not comment on the matter at the moment.
Quasi-religious body Public Affairs Committee also supports the demonstrations. Recently, Pac Board Chairperson, Felix Chingota, said Pac supports peaceful demonstrations when all remedies to influence change have been exhausted.
But Minister of Information and Communications Technology, Nicholas Dausi, who is also DPP spokesperson, said CSOs have nothing new to say.
He said CSOs should rather focus on other activities such as encouraging people to register in the ongoing voter registration exercise so that they vote in next year’s tripartite elections.
A vibrant writer who gives a great insight on hot topics and issues