BLANTYRE-(MaraviPost)– The Centre for Democracy and Economic Development Initiatives (CDEDI) has given President Lazarus Chakwera 48 hours to apologize to Malawians for breaching the Public Health (Corona Virus and Covid-19) Prevention, Containment and Management Rules, 2020.
The new gazetted legislation, which is aimed at containing the spread of the novel Coronavirus, prohibits gatherings of more than 10 people with an exception of funeral ceremony where a maximum of 50 members are allowed to attend.
Wearing face masks has also been made mandatory in the gazetted subsidiary legislation.
However, President Chakwera on Wednesday attended a funeral ceremony for a long time staunch supporter of the ruling Malawi Congress Party (MCP) Roseby Dinala in Blantyre where mourners and comforters disregarded the Covid-19 preventive measures.
Chakwera himself and other government and party officials put on face masks but the majority of the people had no masks, were not observing social distance and there were more than 50 people at the funeral.
Reacting, CDEDI executive director Sylvester Namiwa has accused the Malawi leader of hypocrisy and has asked the president to withdraw the gazetted Covid-19 guidelines and apologise to the nation for his failure to adhere to his own rule.
Speaking at a press briefing on Thursday morning in Lilongwe, Namiwa said it came as a great shock to learn that President Dr. Lazarus Chakwera while attending a funeral ceremony for one of the fallen longest serving members of his Malawi Congress Party (MCP), failed to lead by example in adhering to the recently gazetted COVID-19 preventive measures.
He said it is even more disturbing to note that the Tonse Alliance, which came into power through adherence to the of rule of law, is in fact in the forefront disobeying the laws governing this country.
Namiwa said “CDEDI feels vindicated that the recently gazetted measures were done in total disregard of our prevailing circumstances ranging from cultural, social and economic factors, and therefore one can safely describe them as a best example of copy and paste kind of approach to contain the pandemic.”
He added: “It is total hypocrisy, therefore, for him to expect Malawians to strictly follow the preventative measures when him as the number one citizen is unable to do the same. Is the president sending a message that the guidelines are meant for the poor people that do not have names? This brings to mind a call CDEDI made in the recent past that Dr. Chakwera’s government is stuck with selective application of justice.”
Namiwa, therefore, has demanded the ‘Tonse Alliance’ administration, specifically Dr. Chakwera to withdraw the newly gazetted COVID-19 measures since it is clear that they are unattainable from what everyone has witnessed, if what happened in Blantyre on Wednesday, 12th August 2020 is anything to go by.
He has further advised the President to apologise to Malawians within 48 hours for his failure as a leader to respect the laws of his own government, thereby setting a very bad precedent.
CDEDI has also appealed to President Chakwera to desist from showing traits of arrogance.
“He should be reminded that it is the very same traits of arrogance which led to the ousting of his predecessor Professor Arthur Peter Mutharika from power. Dr. Chakwera should further be reminded that he has been in office for less than 50 days, a period during which Malawians had expected his administration to start showing some signs of the Malawi we really want, and not the executive arrogance and impunity we have started witnessing,” said Namiwa.
CDEDI is a non-partisan, nongovernmental organization that was established in a quest to attain a well-informed and organized citizenry that can ably demand their social and economic rights at the same time hold duty bearers accountable for their actions.
Following the ascendance of the Malawi Congress Party (MCP) and Chakwera to power, CDEDI seems to slowly taking over the leading role from Human Rights Defenders Coalition (HRDC) in holding the government accountable.
HRDC, a grouping of different Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) which was very critical of the former President Peter Mutharika’s administration, has been on hibernation, thereby vindicating assertions that the group is pro MCP.