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Mzuzu City, demo organisers tussle

 There is uncertainty in Mzuzu on today’s planned protests against rising cost of living as Mzuzu City Council wants the protesters to change the date for security reasons.

The council’s spokesperson McDonald Gondwe said yesterday that they advised the Concerned Citizens during a planning meeting on Wednesday to shift the date as there will be many events taking place in Mzuzu requiring security.

He said: “We have no mandate to stop them from protesting, all we have done is to ask them to shift the date for the protests because Mzuzu will require so much security on Friday.

Mvula: Everything is set

“The First Lady [Monica Chakwera] will lead Women’s Day of Prayers at Mzuzu Stadium, schools will be closing the same day and the city will be receiving inputs under the Affordable Inputs Programme. This tells you that security agencies will be very busy.”

On Wednesday, the council met Mzuzu-based organiser Phunziro Mvula while yesterday Mvula was accompanied by activist Sylvester Namiwa.

The council’s chief executive officer Gomezgani Nyasulu said they decided to refer the organisers to police for direction because they had already made their stand on the matter.

“For us, we still insisted that they should shift to another date, but they insisted on proceeding, so we referred them to police for further direction,” he said.

In an interview yesterday, Mvula

said they have asked the police to provide security, insisting they are peaceful and simply exercising their constitutional right.

“Everything is set. We will start from Katoto ground at 9am up to Katoto. The council said they didn’t have problems with us, but it was the police who were failing to provide the necessary security.

“So, we have told the police to come and provide security, they cannot stop our constitutional right,” he said.

In a brief response yesterday, Mzuzu Police spokesperson Paul Tembo said they will provide the needed security.

He said: “We are aware of the protests, and ready to contain any eventualities.”

The demonstration organisers want President L azarus Chakwera and the Tonse Alliance administration to fix the economic and social ailments rocking the country.

They are also questioning alleged government failure to uplift health and education servicesas well as to fight corruption by alleged silence on the K17.5 billion Covid-19 funds and the K6.2 billion saga.

The President has admitted that the country’s economy is in the intensive care unit and will require enduring painful prescriptions to cure it, asking Malawians to remain calm as government works to help the situation

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