The leadership of HRDC in its assessment of the Tonse Alliance government’s six months is concerned with a slow pace in the fight against corruption.
The government has also been characterized with slowness in making decisions that prove to be costly, citing an example of the late appointment of a board for MERA that has led to a hike in fuel prices.
More concerns have been raised on implementation of the Affordable Inputs Program – AIP which has seen top government officials awarding contracts to incompetent suppliers leading to more farmers failing to access inputs.
The coalition fears that the Tonse government may betray Malawians if a majority of its promises are not fulfilled as expected
The Human Rights Defenders Coalition (HRDC) is this Sunday morning holding a State of Affairs Press Briefing, detailing the positive and negative sides of the Tonse administration which is now six months into office.
The address began with a one minute silence in honour of the fallen Archibishop Tarcisius Ziyaye of the Lilongwe Archdiocese for his role in the promotion of good governance.
“Our assesment is people centred, based on the six months that the Tonse Alliance administration has been in power,” said HRDC Chairperson Gift Trapence.
He has faulted the recent hiking of fuel prices urging government to rethink the decision.
“We are not happy with the fuel price hike. The timing is bad. Malawians are already economically stressed,” he added.
Meanwhile, the Coalition has finished reading a statement detailing it’s assesment of government’s performance.
Following are the highlights.
Promises made & delivered:
Rolling out of the Affordable Input Program – AIP targeting over 4 million households.
Increase of PAYE tax free
band from K45,000 to
K100,000.
The President availing himself before parliament for question time.
Alleged key promises broken
Fight against corruption not robust.
Corrupt management of the AIP.
Reduction in passport processing fees.
The Coalition has also made the following concerns…
Some officers have accrued suspicious wealth within a short period the Tonse government has been in power.
Absence of a clear plan to make Malawi a power blackout – free – nation.
Alleged inaction of reduction of Presidential powers.
It claims there is nothing on the ground towards the
creation of 1 million jobs.
It has challenged the
Ministry of Labour to
come up with a clear road
map on the issue before
end of January and that
half way into office,
it should indicate that at least half of the promised 1 million jobs have been created.
President Lazarus Chakwera is being challenged by the HRDC to lay out a clear roadmap on when and how he intends to reduce his powers as state President.
The HRDC believes fulfillment of the promise does not seem to be taking shape and it is worrying.
Chairperson for the coalition, Gift Trapence, points out that they will be taking advantage of meetings they have been having with the President to remind him of the need for reducing his powers.
On the contrary,
The human rights group cautions the Malawi Government against rushed decisions in handling the extradition process of Prophet Shepherd Bushiri and his wife Mary.
HRDC Executive Member, Rev. Macdonald Sembereka further calls on authorities not to forget that Bushiri is Malawian hence his rights and humanity should not be compromised.
He adds that all necessary legal processes and treaties including the SADC Protocol on Extradition should be carefully observed and respected.
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