Demonstrators stranded as Thyolo DC withholds permission to landless people
Scores of Malawians are roaming back and forth at Khonjeni Turnoff in Thyolo – the supposed starting point for a peaceful demonstration by the landless people in the district – as the leadership of Centre for Democracy and Economic Development Initiatives (CDEDI) is at the High Court in Blantyre seeking clearance for the protest.
CDEDI organized another round of peaceful protests to force the government to address the grievances of the people of Thyolo and Mulanje over the long-standing issue.
In Thyolo, the demonstrators were scheduled to start their peaceful demonstration from Khonjeni turnoff to the council offices; while in Mulanje, the protests will start from Nkhonya via Chitakale, to the council offices, where petitions will be delivered.
However, this was never to be for the people of Thyolo because their District Commissioner (DC), Douglas Moffat, refused to grant them permission to go-ahead with their planned march today.
Moffat is preventing the protest under the pretext that today’s demonstration is unnecessary because people in Thyolo already conducted theirs and that a petition on the same land concerns was delivered to the council on June 10, 2021.
The matter is reportedly in court.
But this has not gone down well with CDEDI executive director, Sylvester Namiwa, who has accused the DC of overstepping his authority by gagging the human and people’s rights to peaceful protest.
CDEDI executive director Sylvester Namiwa, in a telephone interview a short while ago, bitterly complained that the DC is manufacturing tricks and excuses to prevent the demonstrators from presenting their concerns to the authorities.
“What Mr. Moffat is doing is against the principles of democracy. But we will try all our best to ensure that the human and people’s rights are respected and upheld,” said Namiwa in a brief interview.
Exercise your right and present your grievances
Do Not Get It – CDEDI wishes to proceed without approval of the DC who expressed demonstrations already took place, the matter is before the court and a demonstration would be unnecessary at this time. Yet CDEDI has left their supporters stranded what’s that about. What did CDEDI wish to accomplish waste people’s time? Yes they did that.
A very wise DC……..Mr Namiwa and fellow henchmen, how many times are you gonna ask people in your area to leave their jobs and businesses to go and demonstrate over this well known land issue when you did the same recently and the authorities are already aware of your grievances….. These tea farm owners you call foreigners have papers for that land the government can not just take away the land from them . Mugab3 tried in Zimzim and we all know how it all ended……Zimzim is still suffering from that mistake. We need contact and dialogue to resolve the… Read more »
From my files, I can see that the people of Thyolo were given land in the 1980s at Nchima estate, in the 2000s at Makande Estate and some people were relocated to Mangochi. May first the chiefs from this district give an answer to the people why they sold all the land while chiefs from the other districts did not do this. Then they need to ask for forgiveness from their people.
The land from Nchima and Makandi estates was just a pittance! In Mangochi the people were given land in areas which were not suitable for any economic activity except the hunting of much which were initially in abundance the achawa of Mangochi do not eat them. Once the mice went extinct there was no reason for the relocated people to stay in such harsh areas.
Government must not be silent on this matter Israel tried, South Africa , Nigeria 🇳🇬 the result of a gvt silence is war and holible