Government says is committed to talks

Justice and Constitutional Affairs minister Samuel Tembenu  has said government was still committed to dialogue with the Public Affairs Committee (PAC) on issues emanating from the last all-inclusive conference.

PAC blamed Government Technical Team (GTT), a committee appointed by President Peter Mutharika to engage PAC, for collapsed talks, accusing the government team of lacking commitment.

But, Tembenu, leader of GTT said in an interview on Wednesday that the word ‘boycott’ does not exist in government’s language, explaining that it was on this basis that government officials attended the [February] PAC conference and accepted to proceed with the dialogue.

He, however, said government was concerned about PAC’s attitude and approach, which he said lacked mutual respect, arguing PAC wanted his team to be meeting them at night after the ‘tiresome Parliament business’.

“This is in writing. We told them this was not possible, but they never listened,” Tembenu said.

But PAC executive director Robert Phiri, in an interview, dismissed claims by Tembenu that parliamentary business contributed to the unavailability of the government’s team.

He said the Justice minister was not being honest, because a proposal that they should be meeting at night after parliamentary business came from the government side. He said minus Tembenu and Peter Kumpalume [both  egislators], the government team was forming a quorum. Phiri insisted that government was simply not committed.

Delegates to the previous conference, among others, recommended to government to fix the ailing economy that has seen prices of food and nonfood items skyrocketing while salaries of most Malawians remain stagnant; make maize available in Admarc depots to save starving Malawians; and stock the-nearly-empty public health facilities with drugs.