BLANTYRE-(MaraviPost)–The Human Rights Defenders Coalition (HRDC) has disclosed that it is engaging its lawyers on the way forward following government’s order to close borders for 14 days.
On 22 December, Government announced new Covid-19 restrictions which among others saw the closure of all borders as well as limiting the number of people in public gatherings to 100.
But reacting to the closure, Macdonald Sembereka, an Executive member of HRDC says as a human rights lobby group, they feel the closure is an infringement on people’s right to movement.
According to Sembereka, government was supposed to consult the citizenry before imposing such an order.
Meanwhile, Sembereka has told the country’s media that the grouping is engaging its lawyer on the possibility of challenging government’s decision.
But Homeland Security Minister Richard Chimwendo Banda has said the government will reinforce the law to make sure that the general public complies with the new Covid19 measures such as not having more than 100 people per gathering.
Banda says police will be visiting gatherings such as music shows so that people in attendance should not exceed 100.
Prophet Shepherd Bushiri who was supposed to hold mega Cross-over night on 31 December has also resorted to holding the cross-over online in the wake of the second wave of Covid-19.
Civil Society Organizations in Malawi presenting a petition to vice chair of joint parliamentary committee inquiry Kamlepo Kalua, called on the commencement of prosecution of Dr. George Chaponda and everybody else that is involved in the maize gate fraud and investigations into the cause recent fire in the minister’s office at Ministry of Agriculture, on Capitol Hill.
According to the petition from the CSOs dated 2 March 2017 and headlined “Civil Society and Concerned citizens petition to the State president on state of affairs in Malawi: We demand accountability and an end of impunity,” was received by Kamlepo Kalua, a member of the joint committee. The petition was signed by Rev. Mac Donald Sembereka, Billy Mayaya and Gift Trapence; and requests the prosecution of Chaponda over his complicity in the Zambia maize procurement.
Chaponda has was fired as Agriculture minister after pressure from CSOs and opposition party.
The CSOs state this will eliminate corruption in government machinery. The CSO through the petition numerous actions; among them are namely avoiding politicizing operations of governance institutions, inquiry on treatment of human rights defenders, and addressing persistent water shortages and electricity blackouts.
The CSOs accused the DPP government of telling lies and politicizing the governance institutions such as the country’s Anti- Corruption Bureau, the Director of Public Prosecution, the Accountant General, the Auditor General, and the National Intelligence Bureau to name but a few
“We in Civil society are deeply concerned about the growing politicization of the governance institutions in Malawi. It is now an open secret that these governance institutions have become a governance curse, due to government’s inordinate interference in their operations”, reads the petition
It adds: “The professional childishness of these institutions, especially in the wake of the recent audit report, bespeaks of the unnecessary political arm-twisting that is at play. This is a huge disservice to tax-payers who fund these institutions”
Receiving the petition, Kalua said it is a shame that heads of these institutions are at times behaving like ruling party spokespersons when in actual sense they are supposed to be accountable and answerable to Malawians.
Kalua therefore, expressed confidence that all corpulent will be brought to book soon as they are working daily to fight corruption in Malawi.
Malawi President Peter Mutharika once again finds his leadership in question as students plan more demonstrations against the ill advised UNIMA fee hikes.
BLANTYRE-(MaraviPost)—In the just ended parliament session, members of parliament passed different bills but the one that has become exceptional is the customary land bill which many Malawians including opposition parties have strongly condemned saying it is not in favour of the poor Malawians.
As of now, Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) in the country have announced that they will on July 25 2016 hold demonstrations against the bill.
This was been disclosed in a short statement posted by one of the human right activist in the country, Billy Mayaya who also happened to be part of the organizing team.
However, Malawi Government through Minister of Information Communications Technology and Civic Education Patricia Kaliati has come out of the cocoon to trash the information being spread on the just passed Customary Land bill by the National Assembly, saying the bill is being misinterpreted.
Section 26:2 (c) of the customary land reads: “the occupier shall pay any applicable rent, fees, charges, taxes and other requirements, in respect of his occupation of the land.”
But in a statement, Kaliati said by quoting and spreading contents of this clause in isolation and reading it out of context , the intention is to create in the public a false impression that under the Customary Land Act, every Malawian will be subjected to paying for their own land.
“The fact of the matter is that the above purported clause being spread on social media is talking about conditions of a Customary Estate in Section 26. This Section needs to be read from Section 24 (1) which says “A land committee may require the payment of a fee on the grant of customary estate to an organization or body.”
“Clearly therefore, “the occupier” being referred to in paying “any applicable rent, fees, charges, taxes and other requirements” is a condition for an organization or body (a Customary Estate) taking possession of customary land,” said Kaliati.
She added: “It must be noted that in the new law customary land is defined as belonging to chiefs and administered to Chief’s subjects as has been the case for a long time in Malawi. Individual Malawians will continue to hold their land as personal for free, unless an individual chooses and decides to register or lease their own land for perpetuity upon which the administrative costs of the leasing process shall apply. Such an individual may further decide to rent out the leased land for a fee to any organization or body.”
She said that it is not true that government under the new law is to dispossess Malawians of their land, saying the new law is intended to empower Malawians over their customary land and provide more land security.
“The public is also hereby advised to realize that any clause or section of any Act must be read in the context of the whole law and the totality of its spirit. Further, the public is also advised that the law must be read in relation to other laws. Most immediately, the Customary Land Act needs to be read along with the Land Registration Act. Besides, Malawi has 14 land related acts.
“We advise the public to take with very extreme caution and question any pieces of land laws being circulated on social media with the intent of creating public panic. The best practice is to disregard them and wait for authoritative information to be disseminated to the public once the acts have been assented to by the State President. We are aware that the public needs appropriate information on land because this is a matter that affects us all,” said kaliati.
Minister of Lands, Housing and Urban Development Atupele Muluzi has also complemented the sentiments of the information minister saying the with the passing of the land bill, individuals in local community will be empowered.
“In its current status, customary land cannot be used as security to obtain a loan from the bank. When government is acquiring such land for public use, compensation is not paid for the land itself because it is considered as having no value.
“With the passing of the Land Bill and the Customary Land Bill, individuals in the local community will now have an opportunity to register this land. This means that they will be recognised as the private owners of the land,” Muluzi said in an interview with the local media.
Meanwhile several stakeholders have warned the DPP led government to tread carefully on the matter.
Life of such beautiful and handsome Albino kids under threat as govt struggles to find a solution on containing the situation
Political Scientists, Associate Professor Mustapha Hussein, who is also dean of administrative studies at the Chancellor College, a constituent college of the University of Malawi, has advised organizers of the naked demonstrations to find alternative means of expressing their anger on the killings and maiming of albinos currently happening in the country. Continue reading Malawi: Political Scientist, chiefs, denounce naked demonstrations on Albino Killings→
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