The Human Rights Defenders Coalition (HRDC) has accused President Lazarus Chakwera of failing to address problems of economic slump, hunger, fuel and forex shortages.
The coalition says these are indicators of a State that is sliding into the abyss.
HRDC officials, led by national chairperson and vice chairperson Gift Trapence and Michael Kaiyatsa, respectively, said this at a press briefing they organised in Lilongwe Sunday.
They asked the President to either come up with an action plan or call for an early presidential election.
The coalition also asked Chakwera to stop globetrotting, fire top government officials such as Secretary to the Office of the President and Cabinet, Cabinet ministers and presidential advisers, claiming that they have failed to solve economic woes.
“To navigate this crisis, President Lazarus Chakwera must act swiftly and decisively without delay. The time to act is now. Failure to do so will lead Malawi down the path of becoming a failed State – a State [that is] unable to fulfil its fundamental constitutional duty of providing essential services to its citizens,” a statement which was delivered at the briefing reads.
HRDC says the current administration’s failure to manage the economy has culminated in forex shortage, a problem the coalition attributes to fuel shortages which, it says, are leading to the rising cost of living as food prices are rising.
Apart from shortage of food, forex and fuel, HRDC has also faulted the Chakwera-led administration for failing to manage debt, which is now pegged at K7.9 trillion, while inflation has soared to 29 percent as of August.
“In light of the alarming indicators, Malawi stands at the edge of becoming a failed State. A failed State is one where leadership glaringly fails in its constitutional obligation to provide fundamental services to its citizens.
“We maintain our conviction that President Chakwera’s current lukewarm approach cannot address [challenges associated with] the pressing crisis. We are, indeed, in [a] crisis, and the President must activate the crisis button, steering the nation through these tumultuous times,” HRDC says.
Meanwhile, political commentator George Phiri has concurred with HRDC, saying the State has already collapsed, such that the economy is on free-fall and citizens’ needs cannot be met.
“If the country is denied credit facilities or debt, the government can collapse at any hour. We are already in a collapsed state because we do not have food, we do not have fuel, prices of goods are escalating and there is no sense of direction,” Phiri said.
He also blamed Chakwera for frequent travels, saying, despite globetrotting, solutions to the country’s problems have not been found.
Government spokesperson Moses Kunkuyu said the government appreciates the issues raised by HRDC.
He, however, said challenges that Malawi is facing are not peculiar to the country, with other countries facing their own challenges as well.
“We all know that the root causes of the problems that we are having are not issues of today only. They have been exacerbated by some other issues, unforeseen conditions, and some of the loans that we obtained a long time ago are maturing now.
“We, as Malawi, are under pressure because of our low productivity [such] that we can [not] service all those facilities,” he told The Daily Times.
Nevertheless, he said, the government would use points raised by HRDC when engaging stakeholders and when developing policies to be used in addressing the challenges.
HRDC was the main organiser of anti-government demonstrations that attracted thousands of demonstrators ahead of the 2019 general and 2020 fresh presidential elections during the Democratic Progressive Party regime.
In the fresh presidential election, Chakwera who led the Tonse Alliance, emerged winner, defeating the then incumbent president Peter Mutharika.
Last week, economist Betchani Tchereni said, much as some people are pressing for the establishment of a recovery plan, such a plan cannot hold water now.
“We have so many plans in this country. We had one previously and did we follow it? Any recovery plan is going to have a budget on it and do we have that money?” Tchereni said.
He said the solutions hinge on governance.
“The economic challenges are multifaceted. We have had supply challenges as our production has been very low; as such, we have had to depend on foreign commodities.
“That has resulted in foreign exchange challenges. We have also been depending on subsistence agriculture, which depends on chemical fertiliser which, in turn, depends on forex [availability to import]. So, these are some of the challenges we have and continue to face as a country. All these challenges require solutions,” Tchereni said.
Consumers Association of Malawi Executive Director John Kapito said Malawians want lasting solutions to problems they are facing.
