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Chakwera gets report on people with albinism attacks

 President Lazarus Chakwera says he has received a report on findings of an inquiry into killings and abductions of persons with albinism (PWAs) that was instituted by his predecessor Peter Mutharika.

The President, who did not disclose contents of the much-awaited report, made the announcement in passing when he met board members of Federation of Disability Organisations in Malawi (Fedoma) at Sanjika Palace in Blantyre yesterday.

He said the report should have been released to the previous administration, suggesting that the process may have failed because the nation was going to an election.

Chakwera (C) during the meeting

Chakwera did not immediately indicate how his administration would deal with the report or when he intends to make it public.

The Association of People with Albinism in Malawi (Apam) pressurised the Mutharika administration to release the report but to no avail.

With the President’s disclosure that the report is on his table, Malawians would obviously wait with bated breath to know the contents.

During yesterday ’s meeting, Fedoma acting executive director Symon Munde told the President impediments people with disabilitities face in employment and access to social cash transfer.

“A very good number of people are left out in government programmes. Such programmes must be conducted in a deliberate manner for our benefit, for example such programmes can be designed in a way where five or 10 people with disabilities are accorded a chance to benefit,” he said.

Malawi University of Science and Technology deputy vice-chancellor Jonathan Makuwira, who is also a Fedoma board member, told the President there was a need to ensure that people with disabilities have access to higher education.

He asked the President to rethink how this can be done.

Chakwera, in his responses, assured that he would look into the issues and he appealed to the group that they should keep discussing.

He also said he was prepared to look into the issue of the Fund.

The President took time to apologise to people with disabilities for the past wrongs they faced in the hands of different people or institutions, assuring them the opening of a new chapter

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