Written by Richard Kayenda
While the presidential declaration of the 21-day national lockdown due to Covid 19 pandemic seems to be the lasting solution, some opposition political parties and social commentators in Malawi feel the move is an infringer on the part of those whose lives depend on informal employment in order to fend for the day.
According to UTM President, Saulos Chilima, who is also the Vice President of Malawi, the 21-day national lockdown that is to take effect from 18 April to 9 May, 2020, and be extended further should it not serve the intended purpose, is a raw deal to a common man on the street whose life solely depends on casual labour of the day to fend for himself
In his social media post, Chilima challenges the authority to think about some people who stay in such high density townships as Kauma Mtandire, Chinsapo Areas in Lilongwe, Mbayani, Ntopwa, Bangwe Areas in Blantyre, Uliwa in Karonga and many others in the country.
Chilima wonders where such people will get their day to day food during this period when most sources of their hand to mouth earnings will be hanged up.
Echoing similar sentiments is a Zomba based social commentator, Wonderful Mkhutche, who feels the 21-day national lockdown is but a copied and pasted policy from western countries whose economies are way better than Malawi’s.
Mkhutche, on his social media platform says: “Not in support of the Lockdown. We are doing this under peer pressure. It has detrimental effects in our situation and there were other thousand ways to handle this. We cannot sacrifice millions of lives to a disease that has now just infected 16 out of 17.5 million people. We should have intensified testing and quarantine to let lives of millions keep on moving.”
On Tuesday, President Arthur Peter Mutharika announced a 21 day national lockdown as one of the newest measures to curb further spread of the disease. About 16 people, in the country, have tested positive for the disease and two have died of the same.