LILONGWE-(MaraviPost)-The country’s Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) under the banner National Advocacy Platform (NAP) denounced government for using policies to shrink the civic space in the country.
The groupings have cited the ongoing plans on NGO Act Amendment Bill 2018 which they is punitive towards their operations in the country.
This was disclosed during a press conference on Wednesday, December 30,2020 in the capital in Lilongwe.
CSOs revealed that government has not consulted NGOs in the country about the recent bill which has been tabled and enacted into law in parliament that is used to regulate NGOs.
According to NAP chairperson Benedicto Kondowe, government should suspend tabling of the bill in parliament until consultations are done.
“We have seen that government is committed to inact the bill into law without thorough consultations. We believe that if the law is for regulating NGOs in Malawi, the NGOs are important stakeholders that must be consulted,” said Kondowe.
Kondowe added that in absence of consultation, the proposed law shall be challenged in all directions by NGOs across the country.
He also denounced the recent ‘irresponsible’ threats made by the Minister of Gender, Community Development and Social Welfare Patricia Kaliati on her effort to see to it that some NGOs have been closed if they do not comply with what government expect.
This comes following CSOs’ call for an end to undemocratic tendencies including the threats to deregister NGOs and the passing of a draconian NGO legislation which aims at fostering illegal control and suffocation of the work of NGOs in Malawi through the 2020 Grand Petition.
The CSOs have condemned the secret act which prohibit civil servants from sharing information that can help to fight corruption in the country.
NAP has also chastised the adjustment of NGO annual fees which was hiked from MK50,000 to a minimum of MK250, 000 and other NGOs to 2 million per year which NAP described as unrealistic as NGOs do not make a lot of money as government assumes.