The Human Rights Defenders Coalition (HRDC) has threatened that it is set to lead mass countrywide demonstrations on December 7, 2022, if the Tonse Alliance-led government will not address the current social-economic challenges within 21 days.
Presenting a press statement dubbed “Enough is Enough with Tonse Alliance government’s Man-made Crisis” on Tuesday afternoon in Lilongwe, the Coalition led by its chairperson Gift Trapence said Malawi is in a serious crisis largely due to leadership failure.
HRDC said the ongoing fuel scarcity and persistent power blackouts are perfect examples of how President Lazarus Chakwera’s government has failed to lead Malawians to a promised future.
“Over the past two years, the Tonse Alliance administration has taken Malawians’ goodwill for granted. Apart from paying lip service, the Chakwera-led administration has done very little to improve the livelihoods of poor Malawians.
“On the contrary, the lives of Malawians are now worse off than there were two years ago, according to recent research,” reads the statement.
The Coalition has also asked the Malawi Leader to fire any incompetent cabinet minister including National Oil Company of Malawi (Nocma) Deputy Chief Executive Officer Helen Buluma.
Further reads part of the statement: “President Chakwera should reboot the system. He should fire the underperforming ministers and officers and hire people that will help him deliver his agenda.
“The government must fix the fuel problem within 21 days. We do not want to see any fuel queues beyond 29 November 2022.”
The vocal Coalition has also called upon Chakwera to spell out concrete measures for addressing the Affordable Inputs Programme (AIP) within the same 21 days chaos with concrete timelines of when and how this will be achieved.