The much awaited July 20, 2015 demonstrations Malawi’s Civil Society organization (CSOs) planned to take place in the country’s major cities due to various social, political and economic challenges Malawians are going through just a year after President Peter Mutharika took reigns of power from former President Joyce Banda, have been postponed pending the meeting with the President.
The development comes just a few days before the national wide demonstration was to take place due to numerous predicaments the public were encountering which among the reasons including deterioration of health service delivery in public facilities, insecurity and increased spate of robberies, murders, protracted progress behind the MK577 billion audit query, convoluted behind Malawi Savings Bank (MSB) sale, government failure to compensation and fulfill to erect the pledged a memorial site for July 20, 2011 victims and slow pace to catch those behind the murder of ACB Director of Operations, Isaa Njauju in relation to the same scenario of the Malawi Polytechnique Student Robert Chasowa death which until now his assailants have not been captured.
In a press conference the trio; Biliy Mayaya (Human Rights Defender), Fryson Chodzi (Forum For National Development’s National Coordinator) and Bright Kampaundi (Forum National Development’s Chairperson) organized on Friday 17, 2015 in the capital Lilongwe said the planned demonstrations were suspended pending an invitation for dialogue President Peter Mutharika has extended to Malawi’s CSOs in the next fortnight.
The trio corroborated saying dialogue has been given a chance such that concerns raised for the intended demonstrations will be presented to the head of state directly from CSOs with in mind that outstanding commitment would be shown to avoid resuming on the suspended demos.
“July 20, 2015 national wide demonstrations were still on until Friday morning, July 17, 2015 when we got a communication from government through the office of the Presidential Advisor on NGOs, requesting an audience and dialogue with civil society to meet with President Mutharika so that government can answer directly to those demands as well as propose a way forward on these key issues.
“The government has pledged that the meeting will take place in a fortnight. We would like to communicate to the general public that we are therefore postponing the nationwide demonstrations which were planned in order to give contact and dialogue a chance.
“However, we want to state that if we are not satisfied with the response from the head of state, we shall revert to our original plan to hold the nationwide demos as away of demanding transparency and accountability from government”, concludes the statement signed by Mayaya, Chodzi and Kampaundi.
Later the Maravi Post spoke to Mabvuto Bamusi, Presidential Advisor on NGOs who expressed gratitude on the positive quick response on the invitation from CSOs have saying the move was a sign of maturity towards serving the public better.
“This is a sign of maturity from Malawi’s CSOs wanting to talk with their government. Fighting won’t take us anywhere but dialoging when there are issues concerning the nation. They have to be assured that all concerns will be addressed accordingly”, assures Bamusi.
