Malawi’s Health Minister Mhango says “lessons learnt” from the walk-in interviews stampede

BLANTYRE-(MaraviPost)—As some Malawian youths are in agony after sustaining injuries of various degrees while scrambling for a chance to be interviewed for different positions in government establishments under the Ministry of Health, minister Jappie Mhango has accepted to have poorly planned the activity.

Speaking to journalists after visiting the victims at Mzuzu Central Hospital, Mhango said the ministry has learnt lessons from the yesterday’s stampede that saw a lot of people injured ahead of planned ‘walk in’ interviews.

10 out of 118 people who got injured during the ‘walk-in’ interviews at Katoto Secondary School on Tuesday are still receiving treatment at Mzuzu Central Hospital while the rest have been discharged.

Mhango says the 118 people will now be interviewed separately.

Thousands of Malawian of youth on Tuesday Morning thronged district centres where the Ministry of Health officials were conducting interviews as Job scarcity continues to take a toll on the Malawian youth.

Social commentators have argued that what happened yesterday is an indicator that youth empowerment which has been on the agenda of every political party during election campaign is just a political gimmick to win the hearts of the youth.

However, under the leadership of President Peter Mutharika, technical colleges have been constructed for the youth to get technical skills so as to beat the high rate of unemployment.

The government has also been giving loans to the youth to start small scale businesses.

Maneno Chimulala

I am a journalist, educator, and activist with passion for telling stories about social justice, sports and political issues. I graduated from Mzuzu University. I started my career at the Maravi Post online publication in 2012 as an intern while in college. Upon graduating from Mzuzu University I was offered a job as Sports Reporter because of my background as a goalkeeper and rose to the position of sub editor. I also had a short stint with Nyasatimes, Malawi Punch and Malawi Digest. Over the past seven years, I have worked intimately with rural organizations and communities in Malawi on human rights, girl child education and grassroots development projects. With an academic background in education, I also volunteer as male champion for girls’ education under Girls Empowerment Networks (GENET) in Malawi’s South West Education Division (SWED).