The Human Rights Defenders Coalition (HRDC) has threatened to stage a mass demonstration on 7 December if President Dr. Lazarus Chakwera and his Tonse Alliance administration fail to address social-economic challenges facing Malawians.
HRDC’s Chairperson Gift Trapence issued the threat on Tuesday during a press briefing held in Lilongwe. He said Malawians are suffering under president Chakwera’s administration.
Among others, HRDC wants Chakwera to address fuel crisis within the next 21 days and also to fire all under-performing ministers and government officials in his administration.
HRDC also demanded the arrest of all individual implicated in the MK 30 Billion Farm Input Subsidy Programme (AIP).
“Enough is enough. If the government does not resolve these issues, by the 29th of November 2022, HRDC will organize countrywide
protests on 7 December 2022,” said Trapence
Both government spokesperson Gospel Kazako and Presidential spokesperson Anthony Kasunda are yet to comment on the development.
Here is full statement:
PRESS STATEMENT
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH WITH TONSE ALLIANCE GOVERNMENT’S MAN-MADE CRISIS
November 8, 2022
Introduction
Over time, HRDC has observed the deterioration of livelihoods for Malawians most of whom are poor. This is in contrast to a promise of a better Malawi that was sold to the electorate in the Fresh Presidential Elections of 2020 which put President Lazarus Chakwera and his Tonse Alliance administration in power.
Although Malawians noticed and acknowledged the shortfalls of the Tonse Alliance Government over the last two years, they believed that the government needed time to work on what needed to be achieved to move this country forward. Similarly, HRDC gave the government time to strategize and execute their plans as spelled out
in their manifestos.
However, over the past two years, the Tonse Alliance administration has taken Malawians’ goodwill for granted. Apart from paying lip service, the Chakwera-led administration has done very little to improve the livelihoods of poor Malawians. On the contrary, the lives of Malawians are now worse off than there were two years ago, according to recent research.
At the moment Malawi is burning. The country is in a crisis. On October 10 2021, following a 22.8% increase in the price of fuel in the country, HRDC released a statement titled Tonse Alliance Government Making Lives of Malawians Miserable.
At that point, we thought things could not get any worse. Fast forward to today, the situation has deteriorated.
What is most worrying in all this is that the President has not shown any signs of empathy to the suffering citizens. He and his ministers and other senior public officials continue to live as if everything is normal. They have detached themselves from reality and have left Malawians to suffer on their own.
Malawians are not asking for extraordinary things—just the basic necessities to get
through their lives. Malawians are asking for the opportunities to live normal lives
other than the mental torture that there are being subjected to. Malawians can’t
breath and they are pleading for a break from this cycle.
Fuel and Electricity Crises
For about two months now, the country has been experiencing incessant fuel
shortages. Filling stations are dry, food prices have shot above the roof and there is
hardly any forex on the market to enable any sensible business to operate.
People can no longer travel due to the unavailability of fuel. If they do, then they
have to pay excessively higher fares.
In public hospitals, ambulances have no fuel
to ferry the sick to health facilities which has led to preventable deaths. And due to
frequent blackouts, hospitals cannot conduct surgical procedures as there is no fuel
to run the generators.
People are dying right in the hospitals as a direct result of the
government’s failure to address the fuel and electricity problems. We are yet to see
a real commitment by this government to solve the perennial electricity challenges.
This same administration promised to install more than 1,000 megawatts of
electricity but there is no single step in that direction thus far.
Businesses are choking to death. Whenever fuel is available, the huge cost has
pushed the prices of all-important commodities to unprecedented levels.
Unfortunately, the same Malawians that sacrificed their time and resources to usher
in the current administration are now paying a heavy price. Consumers now have
to dig deeper into their pockets to put food on their tables and travel to business,
school or work.
All in all, we hope that the Chakwera government will live up to its promise to
eradicate the electricity problems by the end of December.
Sadly, President Chakwera, amidst this man-made crisis, has continued with his
globe-trotting sojourns, in the process externalising the vital forex that could have
been used to procure fuel. When he is at home, President Chakwera has been on
the road every week for events that he can delegate to ministers and other
government officials. All the while Malawians continue to spend sleepless nights on
fuel queues.
Rising New Cases of Corruption, Fraud and Theft
The Tonse Alliance Government’s has presided over an astonishing heist of public
funds. To the annoyance of citizens, the first citizen is disturbingly soft on
corruption, fraud and public theft.
Recently there have been revelations of a dirty mess of the country’s flagship
Affordable Inputs Programme (AIP) where K750 million was paid to a butchery in
the UK. About K30 billion is alleged to have been misappropriated. What is more
worrying is that rains have already started falling, especially in the southern parts
of the country and due to government’s inefficiency; no fertilizers have been
procured for the programme. This government is surely manufacturing hunger that
will hurt poor innocent Malawians.
Before this matter has been resolved, another shameful scandal was reported where
K112.5 million worth of maize belonging to NFRA was stolen. This is not
withstanding a myriad of unresolved corruption and theft scandals, including the
K17 billion COVID-19 funds.
We expect the President to act and make sure that the people who are looting public
resources are brought to account.
Poor Governance, Complicity in Illegal Activities and Impunity
Over and above, President Lazarus Chakwera and his Tonse Alliance Government have displayed a lack of effective and efficient leadership in dealing with governance
issues. This is manifested by a lack of action on emerging challenges by mandated institutional bodies such as the RBM, NOCMA, IG, FIA, ACB, and the OPC, among
others.
It is evident from the inefficiency of these institutions that there is political interference that is hindering their independence.
For instance, the whole fuel problem in the country is a result of inefficiencies at NOCMA but President Chakwera and his government seem to give a blind eye to this problem.
If there was political will to solve the fuel crisis in the country, the President would
have fired the NOCMA bosses as well as other officials who are undermining his
government.
President Chakwera will be judged by history for instituting a Public Service Reform
Commission whose report has been kept under wraps until now, which begs the
question; for whose benefit or interests?
Leadership Crisis
In 2019 to 2020, HRDC led Malawians to defend our democracy and the very future
of the country. It was nothing personal against the previous regime. Malawians
elected you, Mr President not because of your name but because they believed your
words and promise to improve their lives by doing thing differently and better than
the previous regime.
Today, Malawians are not impressed with your performance.
Malawians employed you as a driver because you told them you know how to drive
and can drive better than our previous driver.
However, just like the previous regime, this Presidency is reactive to issues and is
not strategic in resolving challenges facing this country. Malawians don’t expect the
President to go to work because of public pressure or until social media or
mainstream media says something.
Mr President! Leadership needs to be strategic and should be able to visualize and forecast on logical trajectory of issues ahead of time and not wait until things get bad.
Malawians voted for you as President. Malawians did not vote for any of the Ministers into State House. The President is the one who is accountable to Malawians. The President has to rise to his position and be a leader. It is not too late to press the reset button and save your legacy Mr President. Malawians are suffering.
Conclusion
We believe that all these problems point to President Chakwera’s slow indecision
making because at the end of the day, the buck stops with him. If he feels that his
ministers and government officials are not serving his agenda well, only he has the
prerogative to fire and hire new officials.
Although he has confessed and complained that some of his ministers and government officers have not lived up to his expectations, the fact that he has not reshuffled his cabinet or fired underperforming officers to date points to a problem with President Chakwera’s leadership.
OUR CALL TO ACTION
As HRDC, we call upon Malawians to take responsibility again and demand
accountability from a government they ushered into power.
Having made these observations, we would like to call upon the government to do
the following:
1. President Lazarus Chakwera should reboot the system. He should fire the
underperforming ministers and officers and hire people that will help him deliver
his agenda.
2. The government must fix the fuel problem within 21 days. We do not want to see
any fuel queues beyond 29 November 2022.
3. President Chakwera should, within 21 days, spell out concrete measures for
addressing the AIP chaos with concrete timelines of when and how this will be
achieved.
4. Government should fire NOCMA acting chief executive officer Hellen Buluma
because she has been presiding over the fuel crisis.
5. The President should give a directive stopping senior government officials,
including Cabinet Ministers and himself, from all non-essential travelling both
within the country and internationally.
6. President Chakwera must direct law enforcement agencies to investigate and
prosecute all suspected culprits involved in this year’s AIP mess.
In conclusion, if the government fails to fulfill these demands by the 29th of
November 2022, there will be no concessions. Malawians will not allow themselves
to continue suffering anymore.
Enough is enough. If the government does not resolve these issues, by the 29th of November 2022, HRDC will organize countrywide protests on 7 December 2022.
