(MaraviPost): The country’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dr. George Chaponda has questioned the legibility of some donors for pressuring Malawi to embrace minority rights, arguing the matter was controversial to citizens hence needs time for acceptance.
Dr. Chaponda outburst on donors comes barely few days after government through Minister of Justice and Constitution Affairs, Samuel Tembenu on Saturday, December 19 announced that Malawi had suspended arrests and prosecution of people suspected to be involved in homosexuals acts.
The born of contentions came into being after the Malawi Police at Kanengo station in the capital Lilongwe on Monday, December 7, 2015 arrested two men on suspicion that were engaging in homosexual acts in their house at Area 25 township.
The police arrested the two, 19-old Cuthbert Kulemera and 33-year-old Kelvin Gonani after being allegedly had carnal knowledge of each other in the house of one of the suspect whom were later released on bail and charged them with Sodomy contrary to Section 153 (c) of the Penal Code which attracts 14 years in jail if found guilty charged with sodomy.
The development did not go down well with United States of America (USA) and German Ambassadors’, Virginia Palmer and Peter Woeste respectively who demanded the acquittal of the two’s charges of sodomy which angered the general populace. Social Media in Malawi went into high gear demanding the two depart from Malawi immediatly.
But the Foreign Minister Chaponda on Wednesday, December 23, is quoted in the local press that the decision on whether the country should legalize same-sex marriages or not rests with Malawians themselves not donors saying the matter was sensitive which requires thorough consultation.
“Even in their (the donors) countries, go to America. Ho many states have adopted gays? You go to Europe, even in Africa, maybe its only South Africa and a few countries, so we have to tread carefully, by the end of the day we will do what you people want us to do. We are there to implement what our Malawians people want, if they want everybody should go that way-same sex marriages then will do that.
“Malawi society is still undecided on the issue and that is why people react differently once they hear that one is indulging in homosexuality. You can imagine me going to my village and just say that this is my wife and I go with a fellow man, my wife would either think I’m crazy or something is wrong with me”, quizzed Chaponda.
Some years ago, Malawi witnessed the first homosexual couple holding public engagement ceremony-that of Tiwonge Chimbalanga and Steve Muwonjeza who received a lot of condemnations from the general public of their acts subsequently, the court slapped them with 14 years in jail.
However, their sentence was overturned by the late President Bingu wa Mutharika who forgave them after being pressurized by the visiting United Nations (UN) Secretary General Ban Ki Moon when the saga surfaced.
