Release maize to starving Malawians now- PAC

Delegates to the just ended Public Affairs Committee (PAC) summit have told the government to immediately release and distribute maize to starving Malawians.

The delegates said this after senior cabinet ministers told the conference the country had enough stocks of maize.

But the delegates, who sounded concern over the food shortage situation prevailing in the country, wondered why the government was still holding on to the maize whilst the masses are starving.

Minister of Information Jappie Mhango said the country has 50000 metric tonnes of maize in Admarc depot enough to feed the nation until the next harvest time scheduled in April this year.

Mhango said people should stop finger pointing at government over the state of the economy, saying the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) administration inherited a collapsing economy and is now fixing it.

He therefore asked Malawians to be patient.

The meeting also debated on the issue of handouts, with some strongly recommending that parliament should criminalise handouts whilst others were against it.

The ‘future of Malawi’ meeting noted that the country has retrogressed politically, economically and socially, saying this was manmade and can easily be reversed and fixed.

Meanwhile, PAC says all views expressed at the meeting, including calls for the resignation of President Peter Mutharika were solely of the delegates not of the body.

The body’s spokesperson Peter Mulomole said PAC board will soon meet to make resolutions and recommendations out of the conference minutes which would be the official stand of the quasi religious body.

“PAC has not spoken. PAC was just listening. We will be meeting very soon because these are urgent issues,” he said.

Meanwhile, Council for Non Governmental Organisations (Congoma) has called on Malawians to exert pressure on the leadership to demand for food.

In a statement, Congoma accuses Admarc and NFRA of incompetence. Government says the call is misplaced