BLANTYRE-(MaraviPost)—Association of People with Albinism in Malawi (Apam) has demanded the immediate resignation of Heatherwick Ntaba as chairperson of the presidential committee on ending attacks against its members for allegedly blocking release of a report on killings of its members.
Following a series of attacks on people with albinism, including brutal murders, President Peter Mutharika instituted a commission of inquiry, headed by retired judge Robert Chinangwa, which came into effect on March 5 2019 to investigate the killings and produce a report by April 30 2019.
However, the report is yet to be released and government has remained silent on the issue despite Apam issuing a 30-day ultimatum that expired on January 6.
Speaking to local media on Tuesday, APAM president Ian Simbota said the association has lost trust in Ntaba considering that his name was also mentioned in the killing of Macdonald Masambuka.
“What we have agreed as an association of people with albinism is to write President Peter Mutharika to immediately remove Mr. Ntaba from his position because he is a voice of no influence; he is a voice that has not helped people with albinism in any way; he has been mentioned several times in the court of his involvement in Masambuka case. We therefore don’t need such people to be speaking about issues of people with albinism because his image is dented,” said Simbota.
Reacting, Ntaba has described the attacks as very unfortunate.
“For me to be accused of blocking the release of the report on the killings of people with albinism, it’s very unfortunate,” he said.
Recently, HRDC chairperson Timothy Mtambo said government inquiries have become a means of silencing serious issues. He said killings of people with albinism is a serious issue and government should stop taking Malawians for granted.
“It seems the President just wanted to score political points by instituting a commission that could not deliver. Of course from the start we questioned the commission that had been put in place. We felt it lacked capacity and it wasn’t independent,” he said.
Mtambo said despite that, HRDC still expects a report from the commission.
“The report was supposed to be ready by April. Then they asked for a two-month extension but this is now 2020 and the report is not yet out. Apart from the issue being a serious one, they are also using taxpayers money. Lives are involved and government cannot continue to take Malawians for granted. We want the report now,” he stressed.
In April 2019, the commission’s secretary Brenda Vokhiwa told journalists that the commission had done 70 percent of the work and that it needed more time for its members to travel to Tanzania and Mozambique for further investigations.
Both Chinangwa and Vokhiwa have since kept mum on the progress of the investigations.
Since November 2014, over 150 crimes against people with albinism have been reported in Malawi, including 25 murders and over 10 people missing, according to APAM.
