As the day draws near for the January 13 demonstrations against organizations aligned with the Peter Mutharika government to refund the money the groups got from National Aids commission, some of the Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) in the Southern Region have said they will have demos in support of the Mutharika government instead.
The organizations such as first ladies BEAM, Mulhako WA Alhomwe and the National Intelligence Bureau (NIB) are being accused of obtaining money from NAC worthy MK 54 million for the services which were not related to HIV/AIDS.
Some of the organizations like BEAM through supporters have returned the money and others like Mulhako wa Alhomwe have said they did not receive any monies but just supporting services from NAC, They have refused to reimburse NAC for those services as they believe they rightfully got the support from NAC per charter of NAC.
Centre for Human Rights and Rehabilitation (CHRR) and Centre for Development of People (CEDEP) is basically blackmailing the organizations to refund NAC or face the threatened 13th January Demonstrations.
However in a Press conference held today in the commercial capital Blantyre, Civil Society Youth Consortium, Islamic Commission for Peace and Freedom and a concerned citizen Luther Mambala said the demonstrations are baseless.
The three groupings said they are smelling a rat that the planned demonstration are against BEAM and Mulhako WA Alhomwe when other organizations have benefited from NAC in the past.
They say “Statehouse under Joyce Banda got Mk49million and on top of that Reverend Sembereka’s Manelera was granted Mk35million, The question they raise is where CHRR and CEDEP was. They did not demonstrate against Joyce Banda groups, so why now?
So we are saying if Mulhako and BEAM are to refund the NAC money, let these other organizations do the same. By the way, what was NAC money doing at Statehouse”, said Mambelela.
Other independent minded Malawians also question the wisdom of scheduling these demonstrations. Many have made accusations about who is really behind these demonstrations.
