HRDC takes on Tonse for betraying trust of Malawians: Faults Chakwera for okaying self-enrichment, hike of fuel prices
The Human Rights Defenders Coalition (HRDC) has taken the Tonse Alliance-led government to task for allegedly betraying the trust of Malawians on almost all the social and economic fronts.
The coalition has also observed that the Tonse administration is losing direction, stressing that there are early signs that President Lazarus Chakwera and his partners are unwilling to crack down on corruption as hard as they promised.
“The administration also appears clueless on how to grow the economy, in creating the promised one million jobs and in sharply cutting poverty. But HRDC will not allow them to get away with malfeasance. We will use every legal means possible to ensure that the Tonse Alliance-led government is held accountable and forced, if need be, to fulfill its promises, through constitutional means,” said HRDC executive member Reverend MacDonald Sembereka.
Sembereka was among HRDC members who addressed journalists in Lilongwe on Sunday to update Malawians on its assessment of the government over the six months of its regime.
Others were the coalition’s chairperson Gift Trapence, Regional Chairperson for the North, Happy Mhango, and Regional Chairperson for the East, Masauko Thawe.
Sembereka stated that the Tonse administration has displayed little intention of breaking the elite’s hegemony and is no longer showing enough interest to stop the land grab by a cabal of rich and politically connected individuals and companies.
“They have found power too sweet to relinquish some and they could soon stop pretending that it wants to help Malawians get out of their economic pains,” he said.
But HRDC has acknowledged the strides the Tonse government has made in fulfilling its promises. Among others, the coalition pats the back of the Tonse for investigating and arresting some of the key figures in the Peter Mutharika administration on corruption allegations.
It also congratulated the Chakwera presidency for rolling out—despite challenges—the Affordable Input Programme (AIP) at the campaign promised price of K4 495 per 50 kg bag of fertilizer.
“With 4.3 million beneficiary households, the AIP covers at least four times the number of poor families that the Farm Input Subsidy Programme (FISP) used to reach. The Tonse Alliance-led Government has also implemented the increase of the tax-free income band from K45 000 to K100 000, helping to unlock disposable income; embarked on the Public Sector Reforms Programme,” said Sembereka.
He also commended the Tonse government for enacting the Access to Information (ATI) law after four successive administrations refused to do so.
Sembereka added that on the individual level, Chakwera has fulfilled his own pledge to go to Parliament to answer questions from legislators so that he directly accounts to the people through their elected representatives.
“Despite these early gains, there are some early warning signs that what was promised to be a new day might have actually been a false dawn. The voices of discontent are rising among Malawians and we too, as HRDC, have seen it. This includes growing concern on the fight against corruption that appears to be easing back into business-as-usual mode; the slowness in decision-making that is proving costly, as evidenced by the unprecedented 28 percent fuel price hike that appears to have accumulated over time; and the lack of seriousness in getting value from the mining industry,” he said.
He also chided the government for the alleged amateurish and corrupt management of AIP; the lack of a clear roadmap for the reform drive and the creation of one million jobs.
Sembereka stated that Malawians are also frustrated because of the broken promises on free electricity and water connections as well reductions in passport.
“These broken promises are a painful reminder of just how the political elite quickly forgets how they got into their positions. In a nutshell, there are troubling signs that the Tonse Alliance Administration is on course to betray the trust of Malawians. Clearly, there is little improvement so far in several sectors,” he narrated.
HRDC has cited a number of areas where the Tonse Alliance administration has alleged failed Malawians.
Among them include the fight against corruption, fuel price hike and return of blackouts, mining deals, AIP woes, lack of clear roadmap in the implementation of Public Sector Reforms Programme, land management, loans and the one million jobs promise.
The coalition has further challenged the Tonse government to decisively deal with individuals and organizations who have been evading taxes.
Sembereka noted that the loans programme, while higher than the previous package, has yet to start trickling back to the intended beneficiaries largely because of poor leadership in developing operational manuals, guidelines and systems that ensure that the right people get the right financial support for enterprises whose objectives speak to the fund.
He questioned the sincerity of the government, observing that there is nothing on the ground that shows progress on the creation of one million jobs in a year—another Tonse Alliance promise that is breaking the hearts of young Malawians who had so much hope that the new Administration would make their lives better.
“HRDC demands that the Ministry of Labour not only provides a road map for creating these jobs by the end of January 2021, but also provide evidence of jobs created so far, which should be at least 500 000 since half a year has passed,” he said.
On the tax evasion, Sembereka claimed they have evidence to the effect that some Asian-owned companies and individuals have been avoiding payment of these taxes.
“Some have either run away or were deported. With the change of the government, it has come to our attention that some are using senior Tonse officials to come back to plunder in Malawi, avoid tax and externalize our wealth. We would like to warn government, that as HRDC we are watching and monitoring these conspiracies and we will expose them,” he said.
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Zabdikumbutsa Atcheya atatipulomisa nsapato aliyense, nkutiyankha kuti ndikanakuyezani masize any nonse after some years. Hahahaha what I realized and decide ngati mmalawi nkukhala nonpartisan kunkhani ya politics. Timakuwuzani anthuwa ndi amodzi simumva. Komanso panopa tiyeni tiapatsenso two years INA, tisangoona kuti akulephera zitizo. They have done there best, Covid has brought countries like USA on their knees economically, who is ka Nyasa.
Chakwera can do nothing to the likes of Nkaka, Mia and Chimwendo Banda These are his errand boys who are sent out to collect bribes and most recently he sent Nkaka to collect bribes from Somaliland
Akulu akulu, get me right. Zonse zikuchitikazi, Chilima is the winner. Kwa iye zikumukhalira bwino coz Laz is on the driving seat. How difficult is the implementation of free electricity and water connection as promised by Chilima? Kodi Tonse ikuyendera manifesto anji? Guys, kodi anthu awa auulula chuma chawo? Tonse ndi makhuruku basi. Anthu away atipweteka. Chakwera simunthu wabwino. Miah ndi mkazi wache sakuchita manyazi kuti akutibera ife anthu osauka misonkho yathu. Akutapa K100,000,000 mwezi ndi mwezi pa misonkho yathu. Pepani a Malawi amzanga. Bola ku Aigupto komwe kuja timakhuta mazyende ndi nyama osati zalerozi. A Kandodo, tatichitirani chifundo! Tikudziwa kuti linali mwa mbwiyanu Kamuzu.
Ndaona chifukwa chomwe APM ankafuna adzonzi kukhala running mate wawo. Enawa ndi a phuma zedi! Akufuna abweretse chisokonezo.
Can’t we change the constitution so that when a government is underperforming, the opposition should call for an early election like what happens in Israel or India? This will help to have a government standing on its toes every time.
Chakwera showed his true colours when he appointed his cabinet. Kutenga anthu a pachibale, apabanja. Never again I’m voting for this man. We need Chilima pa driving seat
The one who brought the issue of 1 million jobs was stupid and you know who it was. The leader of UTM is well educated and should have know what it meant to create 1 megajobs in one year. I wonder why MCP accepted this stupid idea. No wonder UTM failed miserably to get seats. UTM must apologize to the youth.
During my early school day I was told there were three types of nouns: proper noun, common noun and abstract noun. Corruption is an abstract noun and when we talk about corruption without mention the names of those involved the issue becomes abstract. Everyone is just talking about corruption with evidence. ACB will need evidence. This seems to be a national anthem.
Who told you that the prices of fuel will remain fixed. Please study oil economics. There is an issue of demand and supply. With Covid-19 coming to an end with the Pfizer/BioNtech vaccine and Moderna vaccine being rolled out we should expect the demand of oil to increase and that will push the prices up. HRDC must do their home work before making noise.
Achimwene be careful and mind your language. Do not overrate Chakwera/ MCP Most people still believe he cannot win an election on his own. Do not bring unnecessary divisions, MCP yakhala zaka zingati ku opposition. Muzalimba pano ndi monster DPP?
Tidzalimba amene. Is it not true that UTM started the issue of 1 million jobs? Please answer yes or no and not zolalatazo. Is it not true that UTM just got 4 MPs? The only valuable commodity you have in UTM is Saulos but what is he saying about 1 million jobs he promised the youth and other Malawians? Mind you it was 1 million jobs per year. Not even 500 jobs have been created. Ku dpp kuli chiyaninso pano anthu akuba, atsankho etc adzataninso? Nankhumwa angamuvotere ndani? Mbuli ngati imeneyi.
vuto lanu akulu ndi kuchepa maganizidwe. Chilima was able to see it. You cant see it. Sibawotu iyi.
Its good that finally HRDC are now seeing what everyone was seeing.
The Tonse government is surely loosing direction. Tho is mainly due to its wild promises. It appears they were simply using every trick in the book just to attain power.
Boma loyamba ndi ma demo lizathanso ndi ma demo!!!
Time will tell. It took immediate for things to change when Jane Ansah left MEC, despite MEC being a small institution and our country un the deepest of troubled water the change progress is too slow to notice. How long should we wait before we start passing judgements on our current Government performance?
What HRDC should know is that the price of crude oil went down due to world wide lock downs (low demand), now the trade is almost back to normal hence the oil price has gone up (high demand). HRDC never made noise when we were crying that bus fares were so high when fuel was at MWK 690.
I totally disagree. Do not disguise the failure of Tonse Alliance by raising fuel prises under their watch as a result of covid 19 drop cases nor due to emerging of vaccination . Tell me which countries have seen their fuel rise in Europe where covid vaccine has now been rolled out.
Fuel still cheap if not being sold at same price for the last 10 months.
The fact and truth is Malawi kwacha is nose diving due to malfunction of Tonse Alliance.
Sort out things and implement your promises to come out of this misery.
Prises of fuel rising by over 20 percent is disproportional and that will reflect on prices of other commodities.
When you promise heaven to come to earth and earth to go to heaven that is the ramification.
Pita uko iwe!!!!!
One wonders whether this is really genuine or just window dressing on the part of HRDC. Justifiably they would have demanded Tonse government, Chakwera in particular to:1. get AIP audited because the beneficiaries list has reduced from 4.2m to 3.6m people. Some people failed to redeem their inputs as the system showed that they had already redeemed- a total wicked loop hole in the system.2. get the state house officers involved in Cross Road Hotel saga suspended to pave way for detailed investigation. 3.get done those promises needing immediate implementation thus: passport fees reduction to K14,000, no renewal fees to drivers licenses(????), Grannies stipends. These are some of the issues that people are faulting the government for.
HDRC is scared because other groups doing similar jobs are emerging in Malawi. The demonstrations which took place last Friday in Lilongwe were called for by other organisations hence HDRC had no choice but to join the band wagon otherwise their organization will die natural death
I agree with you – analysis yabwino
Malawians betrayed???
People really expected their lives to be better five months after the new government came to power? Sounds very unrealistic to me. Anyway, this is Malawi. “The most democratic country in the world” Organise demos to remove the current president, maybe the new one will be able to achieve this feat.
Choka iwe!!! Its not the people who expected, it’s the Tonse guys who said “in just 1 year and kwangosala 2 weeks kuti muone kusintha”, unali kuti?
Komaso apongozi akanachoka.. out all the capable Malawians, how can the president appoint his son in law to in one of the critical roles in government.
We took down past governments coz of this same conduct. Zachibale komaso zotengela mtundu ife tatopa nazo.
Foseki
Certain positions you appoint people who can be trusted. Even companies advertise positions and they say someone with sober habits and they also indicate the qualifications and experience of the individual.
Ngati mukudalira kuti cadets will drive your agenda, you are in for a surprise. Cadets are telling you in the face that dpp is a system inu you are busy clapping hands. Pamene simukumvetsetsa ndi pati?
Thank you HRDC for bringing that issue of indecisiveness on the part of this government. I agree with you 100%. Dr chakwera should know that attending and presiding over meetings is nothing. He should instead spend time in his office and attention to memos. There are so.many vacant positions in government that need to be filled. Just imagine Ministry of Tourism as I write has no PS and it’s now 1 month. What are they waiting for. You mean there are no people who could be appointed as PS?
This country is pathetic. Who bewitched us? As energetic as he is, I expected chakwera to be proactive. You sleep everybody goes to sleep, full stop. 2025 sipatali. 6 months into office you still don’t javelin people in strategic positions, who is gonna drive your agenda.? Eeish mumaziyambiranji zinthuzi ngati simungakwanitse?
‘Who bewitcshed us?’ I think its Bakili. That’s why chakwera is slow and undecisive.
The nyau cult is surely confused. Very clueless. APM was a man and a half. By the time he left office, he had dealt with the water and electricity problems on long term basis that’s why we are not having water and electricity problems now. APM also left 356 landmark projects which baby chilima is busy admiring in his useless visits. But look at the nyau team, what are they up to? 1 million jobs zikukanika, universal fertilizer ikukanikanso, K15,000 stipend for our grannies ikukanikanso. Free water and electricity connections kuli ziii no comment from nyau party. Cheap passport, kuli ziiiiiiiiii. Za bullet trains, chilima sakunenapo kanthu. Non- renewable passport kuli ziiiiiiiiii. And with this level of incompetence by Chakwera, why should we believe that we have a president?
Foseki
We know who is paying you to write shity stuff. It’s unfortunate that some Malawians will will even rape children for the sake of money. Eti kuti alemere. Shame on you
Some cars . Someone is proxy.
Some room. Some hotel had it fully booked for one year. Onse ndi amodzi
We should vent our frustrations to Tonse Gvt with heavy and troubled hearts for not living up to their promises.
For this reason,we have understood and mature to believe how much mainstream politics does not want to spread the truth but seeks to silence and distort it.Spreading the lie that is just useful for the purpose of careerism.It is important that we must come together and make our voices heard because leadership is just a privilege not the right.
However, we should know that with globalized economies,politics among others,chances of living up to their promises won’t be there.
well done HRDC for reminding them, i was furious last week when i went to northern region water board to apply for water connection. they said they have changed their mode operandus hence am required to buy water meter and all tools required for water connections. they charged mk35000 for meter which i paid, and they wrote a list of other materials which are required and they said i should buy them from hardware shops. with list of recommended hardware shop jotted down. after buying those materials, it costed me another mk70000. which bring the total of water connection cost tomk105,000 from mk65,000 which formerly used to be the connection fee paid to water board. during past regimes we were paying connection fee [mk65000] and water board would do the rest. this tonse group is a joke, their reforms are worse than the defaults system.
Foseki so why do you hide your name if you’re saying the truth
are you saying your real name is kambewa ngozo.
Stop bullying people. Why do you want to know names of people??
It’s all about the facts and direction Malawi is going.
I read the facts and I’m not bothered about names of people.
The name Kambewa Ngozo to me even sounds fake
Zimenezi zinayamba before Tonse. You buy all those things and after connection, they become Waterboard assets. Even ESCOM requests people to buy poles and transformers if they want to have electricity extended to their area and this started way back. All the money for electrification went to party and peoples pockets such that now customers have to buy the materials to have electricity and guess what, after buying the assets, ownership moves to ESCOM.
What a bunch of no good people these people are.
Firstly our economy took a down turn because of their non ending protest,looting, confusion & no investor confidence because of HRDC.
Mr Gift Trapence you are the gift that keeps on giving. I know we are now in The festive Christmas period but what kind of Human Rights are you defending when you just want a certain Party’s members and Race to be persecuted?
Are you trying to say that there aren’t any shoddy dealings happening apart from DPP & mwenyes happening or have happened in Malawi?
What a bunch of hypocrites just want to stay relevant now the job of overturning the elections are over.
Go back and stay in the hole you came from shupidi!!!! Chitsiru weni weni
Especially pa 100% increment ya ma allowance ama MP. Apa nde awonetseratu kudzikonda ndi mtima wadyera. They are up to no good. They lack love and patriotism for their nation.
Hello I’m overseas .ppl should not think they have all the solutions .The price of fuel is 1.5 dollars a litre calculate that in mk.all the western countries are beset by huge problems .So pls sober up when commenting.
It has been like that for almost the last ten months and even now fuel prices have not changed abroad where you live. Do not treat people like fools
💪🏿🇲🇼
Good analysis by hrdc but I would also have loved if hrdc would include in the analysis how much money the govt managed to collect from taxes and other means during the 5 months they have been in power versus the the number of promises they could have been able to fulfil.
It is one thing to stand on high horse and give a stick to the government when we have low tax collections due the pandemic. The pandemic has also contributed to the mass layoffs of workers as companies looked for ways to survive, this combined with the fact that a large potion of our population survives on under £1 a day let alone pay any meaningful taxes to the govt…..
I know that there is pressure on the hrdc or civil society side to show that they are still relevant and can hold gov to account but out of all people we expect hrdc to know better on how much money the government is able to collect every month and whether that money is enough to implement everything the Tonse government promised just in less than 6 months….
I guess the corruption is also due to the global economy
Chiri kwa nzako Chigwire nyanga. Nanga Pali zinthu yapa?
Foseki
Why are you making noise. At the moment fuel in Malawi is cheaper than in the UK.
Fuel again is transported by road that’s very expensive. Why can’t the government consider to have a crude oil pipe line like what Zambia is doing. Zambia has a pipe line from Dar esaalam and reaches Zambia. Or another alternative iis to repair or construct railway lines so that goods should be coming into Malawi via railway and again this will create jobs for many young people.
As for crude oil pipe line there is no harm to contact Zambia and also negotiate with Tanzania
The biggest transporters are miistersin the current government so why would theypromote a pipeline. Also when you say fuel is cheaper in the uk. Most Malawians live in Malawi and are not earning the pound bwana
OK but my point is is the price of fuel in Malawi ib better than in most countries. Unless you are saying that the government should subsidie the the price.
I still look at cheaper landing costs the crude oil pipe line or railway transport
Kambewa are you telling us that before fuel to Malawi was not delivered by road? Has transporting fuel to Malawi by road just started when Tonse Aliiance came in?
Your argument is self defeating
Pipe line is long term if the economy of Malawi can afford. Reduction of some costs from the total mark-up is short term.
Zangazanga Chikhosi is completely messing up the civil services. He is promoting undeserving people . You can imagine he dismissed Mzati Nkolokosa and Seod White saying that their recruitment was illegal and irregular yet the same guy has employed Chikumbutso Ntumodzi and Bendulo in a similar manner. More disturbing is the way Bendulo has been recruited. The guy has no qualifications yet Chikhosi has created a position of director for him. If indeed you HRDC represent Malawians you need to act on the thieving Nkaka kapondamgaga, kalumbu and all the bastrds that have been employed without following procedures.
Foseki
Someone can have a PhD but not trusted enough for certain positions.
Khalidwe ndilofunika
In UK certain positions they also they also check CRB on an individual.
Have never see a government so inept, even people’s party was better than this alliance.
Leave this job to Namiwa for CIDED you are failures