CSOs give Mutharika 7 days action on Law Commissioner
Civil society organisations under the banner Human Rights Defenders have given president Peter Mutharika up to seven days to fire Law Commissioner Gertrude Hiwa or face an unspecified action.
The CSOs say Hiwa is illegally clinging to her job after her two term mandate expired in June and faulted Mutharika for his failure to appoint a new law commissioner at the Malawi Law Commission.
The chairman of the Human Rights Defenders Timothy Mtambo said the President needs not to be reminded that the contract for Hiwa expired in June and she is illegally working at the Malawi Law Commission.
Mtambo. said the next move if the president fails to fire Hiwa was to make an unspecified action so that Mutharika is jostled into action on the matter.
Government spokesperson Nicholas Dausi said the CSOs were now stepping beyond their mandate.
“These are people who were not elected by anybody. I think they are now stepping the red line. The president has his work to do and the CSOs have theirs too, different from each other,” said Dausi.
The CSOs say Hiwa should pay back all the salary and benefits she had been collecting from the government after the expiry of her contract in June this year.
There was no immediate comment from Hiwa herself but chief secretary to the Office of the President and Cabinet Lloyd Muhara said there is nothing wrong that Mutharika has done.
But law lecturer at Chancellor College Gaston Kamchezera said it was illegal for Hiwa to keep on working, telling Muhara to clean the mess surrounding her contract.
