No repeat of July 20  killings, MCP Diaspora warns

The Diaspora Wing of the main opposition Malawi Congress Party  (MCP) have thrown their weight behind Friday’s planned demonstrations which has been arranged by the civil society organisations CSOs , calling on Malawians to come en-masse to support the cause.

In supporting the words expressed by the party president Dr Lazarus Chakwera that he fully endorses the demonstrations, the  MCP diaspora wing has called on Malawians to exercise their freedom to demonstrate.

Speaking to Nyasa Times from Chicago,USA, its leader Lucy Chitembeya said Malawi cannot afford to have the repeat of  what happened on July 20, 2011 when some demonstrators were killed.

A day before July 20,   Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)  panga-wielding youth  were driving around  Blantyre  brandishing pangas.

The gang of machete-wielding youths took to the streets in DPP branded vehicles and stopped at several points, got out their vehicles and sharpened their pangas.

They chanted the now familiar DPP war-cry in Malawi’s lingua franca, Chichewa: “Onyoza boma sagona, timpweteka! (“Those opposing government will not sleep, we will deal with them!”)

And this time around, a day before April 27 demos, DPP supporters staged their demonstrations in Blantyre condemning the CSOs planned protests.

“We want the DPP government to be aware that us diasporas are watching, and we have the international community on alert as well-any intimidations will not be tolerated  and DPP will be held accountable,” said  Chitembeya.

The April 27 demonstrations have been organised by the Civil Society Organisations and are aimed at publicly registering the Malawians discontent on how the DPP-led government has handled the K4 billion scandal and other governance issues.

People are expected to convene across the country including the cities of Mzuzu, Lilongwe, Blantyre, and Zomba to through demonstrations.

The Civil Society Organisations have been adamant that the inconsistencies, illegality and a cloud of suspicions that has characterised the entire process of the infamous K4 Billion scandal in the process has raised serious governance and accountability questions.

Chitembeya highlighted that the theme of the demos represent the current plight of the majority of Malawians at the moment “For how long shall Malawians continue to be taken for granted? Loss of public trust in current Administration: Time to Reclaim our Destiny” is the theme of these demos.

“Our leader Dr Chakwera has been talking about this for a long time, there is a lot of corruption and theft of government money going on, no solution to the electricity problems, the continued poor service delivery in public institutions, the poor conditions of service for public servants and the high youth unemployment levels Malawians have been taken for granted by the DPP regime and the public have lost trust in this government – added Chitembeya.

Back in 2011  at least 20 people were killed during demonstrations sparked by worsening fuel shortages, rising prices and high unemployment and also calls for the then president , Bingu wa Mutharika to step down.