Written by Richard Kayenda
The electoral alliance of Malawi Congress Party (MCP), UTM and other political parties in the country has tied down the government to address what it has termed ‘five failures’ before it implements a 21day national lockdown.
According to a press statement co-signed by MCP and UTM Spokespersons, Reverend Morris Munthali and Dr Chidanti Malunga respectively, government has to address its failure to provide poor Malawians with necessary supplies to survive the lockdown, failure to support health workers and medical facilities on the front lines of the fight, failure to implement all measures to stop the spread of the virus into and across Malawi, failure to comply with the laws governing the management of a national pandemic and failure to secure the cooperation of Malawians based on mutual trust rather than threats.
The statement has further said that prior to the lockdown announcement, Dr Chakwera and Dr Chilima provided their advice to the government that a lockdown without preparations and provisions to support poor Malawians would be a disaster, but the government did not take heed of the advice.
The statement has enlightened the government that health workers and medical facilities in the country have to be readied for the defense against Covid 19 disease before it attempts to lock poor Malawians down.
The MCP-UTM Alliance has also highlighted that the reason the High Court ordered the government to appear before a judge to explain the legality of its decision on lockdown is because the government has been playing hide and seek since its declaration of national state of disaster on 20 March this year.
Last week, President Arthur Peter Mutharika announced a 21 national lockdown that would start from the midnight of 18 April to 9 May,2020. However, on Wednesday, Human Rights Defenders Coalition (HRDC), Church and Society of the CCAP Synod of the Livingstonia and two individual persons sought a court injunction to counter the lockdown.
