CSOs demos against funds abuse slated for Tuesday

Despite last Thursday’s poorly attended protests, some civil society organisations’ (CSOs) leaders have organised yet another demonstration to demand action from President Peter Mutharika’s administration on what they call delayed justice on abuse of public funds.

The protests, to be held in Blantyre, Lilongwe and Mzuzu, have been slated for Tuesday.

However, a renowned social commentator and human rights lawyer Justin Dzonzi has warned activists against the culture of continuous demonstrations, saying the significance of the whole exercise may be diluted.

During Thursday’s demonstrations, concerned Malawians presented a petition to government and the country’s two mobile phone operators against exorbitant rates and poor telecommunication services.

But the activity was poorly attended with law enforcers outnumbering the protesters.

This will be the fourth time this year for CSOs to hold protests, after doing so in January, May and last Thursday on different issues.

One of the lead organisers of the July 7 protests, Billy Mayaya, said in an interview they want comprehensive action from Mutharika in form of forensic audit of all government ministries, departments and district councils as they believe current efforts are not enough.

“We want to target our message to the President whom Malawians voted in to provide both leadership and answers in line with the DPP’s [Democratic Progressive Party] promise of zero-tolerance to corruption. So far, there is scant evidence of this,” said Mayaya.

He said the CSOs were not satisfied with the state of investigations into the abuse of funds where billions of kwacha are being siphoned and would want to see speedy investigations and prosecution of culprits.

Mayaya said it was high time Mutharika showed commitment in “naming and shaming” those involved in the abuse of hundreds of billions of tax-payers’ money.

“The economy is being run into the ground by greedy, heartless and callous politicians who are under the illusion that they are above the law. Malawians are tired of this political theatre, they want to demand answers and justice now,” he said.

But in an interview yesterday, Dzonzi, who is also executive director of Justice Link, observed that repeated protests may lose impact.

Said Dzonzi: “Everything that is repeatedly done loses its impact every new time you do it. So, if there is a culture of continuous demonstrations, the civil society will continuously be losing the impact of the demonstrations because people will begin to get used to it.”

Dzonzi advised the CSOs leaders to develop other levels of engagement so that demonstrations should just be used as escalating or leveraging factors to avoid members of the public and duty bearers forgetting the core issues being presented.  n