BLANTYRE-(MaraviPost)– The Malawi government has criticised High Court Judge Kenyatta Nyirenda for granting an injunction stopping nationwide lockdown which was announced by health minister Jappie Mhango as a measure to contain the novel coronavirus.
Nyirenda, who was recently accused by the general public of undermining the coronavirus efforts, granted the HRDC an injunction against the 21-day lockdown on Friday afternoon.
HRDC and opposition parties faulted the DPP-led government for failing to announce any tangible measures to alleviate pain of millions of poor Malawians during the lockdown.
Reacting, Minister of Information, Civic Education and Communications Technology, Mark Botomani, has warned that the injunction has placed Malawian lives at risk of the pandemic.
“We have received the information with a lot of misgivings. To begin with, we did not expect that in prevailing circumstances we have a judge granting such kind of an injunction.
“You see, the very reason that government decided to lockdown the country from tomorrow (today) is basically to protect the lives of people because right now we no longer have these imported cases of coronavirus. What we have now is a local transmission,” said Botomani in an interview with BBC Africa, monitored by Maravi Post.
Botomani also quashed allegations that the government rushed to declare the lockdown without putting in place safety nets, saying the government set a package to help the poor during the lockdown period.
“As a matter of fact just today, government has been working on a package to specifically to deal with the informal sector and vendors inclusive and those that ply their trade in market places. We put in place lump sum of money so that during this time we could be able to give out to groups of people who will be able to at least have a meal during the 21-day period lockdown.
“You must also understand that we have what we call social cash transfer. Government has been implementing this program for a quite number of years. And just recently we just paid for four months the people that leaves in rural areas and those in the city; the poor of the poorest. We are targeting over 300 000 people,” he said.
Recently, Nyirenda also granted an order which released four Chinese nationals who had been quarantined at Kamuzu International Airport in Lilongwe on March 17 2020.