Youth group demands practical economic opportunities, supports CSO’s 10-point petition

Lilongwe based Center for Community and Youth Development (CCYD) says it participated in Friday’s nationwide anti-government protests to demand employment and practical economic opportunities for the youths.

Malawians turned up in thousands for the demonstrations to denounce the disbursement of the controversial K4 billion to Members of Parliament (MPs).

The citizens are also dismayed with persistent power blackouts, executive arrogance and emerging bad economic and political governance.

“The torturous consequences of such inconsiderate actions by government mostly affect young people who constitute the bulk of the country’s population,” CCYD Executive Director Weston Msowoya told Nyasa Times.

Center for the Development of the People (CEDEP), Center for Human Rights and Rehabilitation (CHRR) and Youth and Society (YAS) led the protests held in all the country’s four cities and in Karonga and Rumphi.

In Lilongwe for example, one placard read, “Create jobs and businesses for the youths!”

Msowoya could not agree more with the call, insisting that jobs and businesses are inevitable now in a country where thousands of qualified youths are idle and languishing in abject poverty.

“You will notice that even in the ten-point petition there is a demand for youth empowerment through education and job creation which if addressed will help reduce rising cases of crime and hooliganism,” he said.

Marching along revered activists CEDEP Executive Director Gift Trapence and CHRR’s Timothy Mtambo on the streets of Lilongwe, Msowoya cheered on the singing and dancing youths in what have been hailed as the most patronized anti-government demonstrations in modern democratic Malawi.

He commended the several advocacy management trainings CCYD has gone through across the globe which he said have made his staff contribute to the successful organization of the peaceful marches.

“These youths led demonstrations have proved it that we are capable of managing national development affairs smoothly,” Msowoya wound up.

The CSOs have since given President Peter Mutharika 90 days to act on the grievances included in the ten-point petition, failing which, he must resign