HRDC threatens anti-Tonse demos for duping Malawians,  $50m oil deal

Apparently fed up with the current Tonse Alliance administration’s slowness to govern and a clear lack of direction, the Human Rights Defenders Coalition (HRDC) has threaten to  mobilise Malawians to demand what they deserve and what they were promised and signed for.

Ironically HRDC was instrumental in pushing for change after the courts declared null and void the 2019 elections which the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) were declared winner by Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) through electoral fraud.

But a few months down the line, the stakes seem to have changed with the popular non state actor telling President Lazarus Chakwera that Malawians are already losing hope and openly expressing dissatisfaction with his administration.

“Unless we see genuine change and drastic steps to implement campaign promises, we will soon start to mobilise Malawians to demand what they deserve and what they signed for,” reads part of the HRDC statement.

In the statement, HRDC chairperson Gift Trapence  and national coordinator Luke Tembo says his organisation finds it imperative to comment on the status of the Tonse Alliance following numerous concerns and queries from the public regarding the loss of direction of the country.

“It should be recalled that the current government led by Malawi Congress Party (MCP) campaigned and won the June 23, 2020 fresh Presidential elections on the Tonse Alliance philosophy. The alliance campaigned and won based on a merged blue print that consolidated some of the promises from the manifestos of all the alliance partners,” further reads the statement.

HRDC says in the statement that Malawians are shocked to see that these promises seem to have been abandoned altogether except the affordable fertilizer pledge.

“Malawians are now openly expressing their loss of hope and feel duped as there is total silence from the Alliance leaders including Vice President Dr. Saulos Chilima who is also UTM President.”

HRDC has since demanded that Tonse Alliance leaders jointly address Malawians on the state of the Alliance in reference to the joint and consolidated manifesto that Malawians voted for as well as give a clear timeline to Malawians how the merged campaign promises will be implemented.

The coalition has also demanded that “that government institutes a clear, professional and independent investigations to verify how the K6.2 billion Covid -9 funds under Dodma – which is under the Office of the President and Cabinet – were disbursed and used. Receiving reports alone will not give a complete picture of the whole situation.”

HRDC also stated that some top government officials believed to be from State House and Office of the President are threatening the Malawi Energy Revenue Authority (MERA) to award oil contracts to two suppliers for them to share the proceeds.

“We have information that high profile government authorities are allegedly threatening MERA and NOCMA (National Oil Company of Malawi) officials to award a contract to their preferred suppliers (two) whose cost will be USD 50 million more,” reads the statement.

HRDC has since demanded the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ABC) to quickly move in and stop the un-procedural award to these two companies.

There was no immediate comment from Tonse Alliance members on the statement that has been as the first scathing one on the current administration.