Cama urges consumers to fight for their rights

As Malawians celebrated the life of freedom fighter John Chilembwe on Sunday, the Consumers Association of Malawi (Cama) has urged consumers in the country to emulate his courage by demanding their consumer rights.

The call comes at a time when Malawians continue to be traumatised by ever rising commodity prices which have seen costs of essential commodities, including maize and bread jumping by over 50 percent within the last 90 days.

Cama executive director John Kapito said on Monday Chilembwe was courageous and could not take violations of his rights lying down.

Kapito told Capital Radio that it was high time Malawians learned to stand up and fight for what is right.

Rising commodity prices have been greeted with stiff resistance in other countries, the latest being in Nigeria where citizens have been protesting the recent removal of subsidies on fuel by Goodluck Jonathan’s government.

Just recently, Mozambicans protested a significant rise in the price of bread, forcing authorities to rescind the decision.

However, for a long time, impoverished Malawians have failed to stand up in unity and reject or speak against such evils.

Malawians last attempted to speak up against the system in 2010 when they staged a protest against what they argued were extremely high bank charges by the country’s commercial banks.

The event, which saw Malawians led by Cama marching and presenting their concerns to the Reserve Bank of Malawi, yielded little to no tangible results as no bank reduced its service charges.