Over three thousands graduates under the government internship program have made an emotional appeal to President Lazarus Chakwera’s administration to consider extending their internship period.
Chakwera’s administrations announced plans to terminate the contract of all interns who were recruited in 2018 and 2019 on 30 June, with the aim of replacing them with Malawi Congress Party (MCP) youths and sympathizers.
According to the Ministry of Labour law enforcers will apprehend all interns who will report for work after termination of the contracts.
Speaking during a media briefing which was held in Blantyre on Saturday, Secretary for the Interns, Felix Chaula appealed to government not to terminate their contacts saying doing so will subject the youths to extreme poverty.
According to Chaula, terminating their contracts will also contradict the Tonse philosophy of creating one Million jobs for the youths.
“If our concerns are not considered, then we will be subjected to abject poverty due to COVID 19 that has wreaked havoc on our economy in different sectors.
Further, dropping us will mean contradicting the TONSE promise of 1 million jobs and dream of making the youth active and productive,” said Chaula
The Interns, who are also being accused of being Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) cadets, denied the accusations saying they are affiliated to any political party or grouping in the country.
“We would like to disassociate ourselves from accusations that we are affiliated to a certain political party; we are only noble youths who were selected into the program on merit and expect the government to hear their grievances,”
The Internship programme was introduced during the Professor Peter Mutharika administration to provide work integrated experience to graduates as a bridging programme from schooling to work in order to improve their employment prospects.
