The Centre for Democracy and Economic Development Initiatives (CDEDI) in Malawi has asked citizens to keep a watchful eye on the country’s government.
Malawi’s social rights watchdog made the call against the backdrop of reports that the ruling Malawi Congress Party (MCP) was moving to introduce ‘draconian laws’.
Addressing newsmen in Lilongwe, the country’s capital, CDEDI Executive Director, Sylvester Namiwa, stressed that it should be the responsibility of every citizen to guard against any alleged attempt by MCP to slide the country back to the ‘darkest days of the one-party regime’.
‘Just one year down the line, President Dr Lazarus Chakwera and his MCP are all over town, grabbing everyone by the neck in their effort to take the country back to where it was, some 27 years ago’, Namiwa claimed.
‘MCP is trying all it could to take back Malawi to the darkest years when some selfish politicians, led by Malawi’s first President, the late Dr. Hastings Kamuzu Banda, abused their powers and began changing the country’s laws willy-nilly. This, we cannot, and should not accept, in this era’.
Namiwa further said, ‘Today, we are seeing the traits of the one-party regime in President Chakwera, who is busy dismantling and crippling the judiciary, in order to clear the way for his ill intentions.
‘Dr Chakwera is busy introducing very strange bills in parliament, which aim to take away people’s right to industrial protests, which all along employees in the country enjoyed. This must be stopped, at all cost’!
Commenting on the contentious proposed amendments to the Labour Relations Act, Namiwa warned Chakwera against entertaining introduction of laws that infringe on the rights of workers.
He said the law was enacted to protect defenceless employees from harsh treatment from their employers simply for exercising their rights.
‘Today, the Tonse administration, for all bad which we know, carelessly tampered with the labour laws and pushed an amendment to the effect that employers would be at liberty to deduct salary/wage from an employee who goes on a strike’, the activists said.
Namiwa alleged that the other target group for the Chakwera administration is the medical personnel who usually turn to strikes to force the government to improve their conditions of service.
At the time of this report, the government of Malawi had not responded to the allegations levelled against it by the civil society organisation (CSO).
Source: CDEDI
Photo source: CDEDI