Malawi situation worries UN, Ntaba defends ‘war cry’ speech

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is worried with the fragile situation in Malawi and has asked Southern African Development Community (SADC) to assess the situations.

The UN chief asked Angola, as chairperson of SADC , to assess Malawi “ on the worrying situation.”

Malawi situation triggered more concerns on Sunday when President Bingu wa Mutharika told foreign donors to “go to hell”, accusing them of plotting with local groups to topple his unpopural government.

Mutharika said he was “tired of being insulted” and urged his followers to prevent any protests against him.

Ban: Malawi situation worrying

Civil society organisations and opposition parties have denied that they were planning street protests as speculated by government and has condemned Mutharika for inciting his supporters.

Malawi’s NGO umbrella group, the Council for Non-Governmental Organisations (CONGOMA), says the president has the “wrong intelligence”, and no demonstrations are being planned.

“The president should be tired of the problems on the ground, not his critics,” CONGOMA chairperson Voice Mhone said in a statement.

“Unless he exerts all his energy and resources in finding solutions the criticism will not stop,” he said.

But presidential spin doctor Hetherwick Ntaba defended the President’s ‘war cry’ speech.

Ntaba explained that “what the president said on the donor was that, the problems currently rocking Malawi are only understood better by us as Malawians.”

He told a local private radio station that “the donors in this case should not dictate or prescribe foreign solutions to our problems.”

Ntaba also defended Mutharika’s statement urging  youth cadets of his ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) to “do everything possible to rise up and make sure the demonstrations are thwarted”.

He said what the President said about the demonstrations is that  “DPP supporters should get prepared; after all, they suffered a lot during the July 20, 2011 demonstrations. So the president said this time around, the DPP should get ready this time, not to get unawares.”

Mutharika said he has intelligence reports that some Western donor nations were working with local non-governmental groups (NGOs) to hold street demonstrations and vigils against his rule.

“I will not accept this nonsense any more,”Mutharika said as he opened a road in his home tea-growing district of Thyolo.

 

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