By Alick Junior Sichali
Gandhi Must Fall Movement on Tuesday obtained an injunction at Blantyre High Court restraining the construction of Mahatma Gandhi statue in the commercial city.
One of the persons in Gandhi Must Fall Movement, Pemphero Mphande has confirmed the development in an interview with Maravi Post saying Judge Justice Mtembo is the one who has granted the injunction.
According to Mphande they have hold the plan of petitioning Blantyre City Council (BCC) as most of the times government authorities have given blind eyes whenever Malawians express their grievances.
“We thought of dumping our earlier plan of petitioning BCC because most of the tomes when government authorities have been petitioned they usually ignore the concerns,” Mphande said.
But Mphande was quick to say the movement will continue recording signatures of the citizenry so that they proceed with their plan of petitioning the city’s council.
He said currently they have registered more than 2,500 signatures online, a development he explained that Malawians do not want the Indian icon statue.
The grouping is expected to petition Blantyre Council next week when they have recorded a number of the citizenry’s signatures.
“We are going to maintain our stand of petitioning BCC next week, currently we want to continue sensitizing people who Mahatma Gandhi is and alerting Malawians why we are saying no to the statue,” Mphande explained.
Gandhi Must Fall Movement has vowed that they will do anything to bar the erection of statue in the country saying it has no place here.
They say if government wants to construct statues they should honour heroes who fought for the country’s independence the likes of Dr. Hastings Kamuzu Banda and John Chilembwe.
Reports indicate that Mahatma Gandhi was a racist towards black people during the colonial rule.
But government, through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has defended the construction of the monument citing benefits the country continues enjoying from India.