The Tonse Alliance administration has described its rating of the past two years by Human Rights Defenders Coalition (HRDC) as unfair.

Government spokesperson Gospel Kazako said this during a press briefing that he held in Lilongwe on Friday on the sidelines of preparations of this year’s 58th Independence celebrations.

leKazako (L) and Kawale addresses the media during the press briefing

He held the press briefing together with Minister of Lands Sam Kawale, who is chairing the celebrations’ organising committee.

“To say we have failed now is not fair because Malawians gave us a mandate of five years and we have just done two. There is no way one would come and say we have failed now. We are on the right track, and we know that Malawi will not be the same,” said Kazako.

Likening HRDC’s assessment to a football game, Kazako said one cannot declare a win or a loss after 25 minutes in a football match; that would be considered unfair refereeing.

In its assessment contained in a statement released on Thursday, HRDC national chairperson Gift Trapence, among others, condemned the Tonse Government on issues of nepotism, public sector reforms, corruption, non-fulfilment of the one million jobs promises, and the shrinking civic space.

The human rights body observed, for instance, that all major fundamentals show that the economic situation—at both macro and micro levels—have deteriorated in the past 24 months.

It reads in part: “One just has to look at the foreign currency market to understand how Malawians are worse off.”

In the statement, Trapence also criticised the Tonse Alliance administration for failing to deal with corruption, arguing that to this day, the suspected corruption, abuse of public resources as well as gapping loopholes in public financial systems are still rampant, resulting in the loss of billions of public funds.

In a telephone interview, political analyst Makhumbo Munthali sided with HRDC, stating that government has not been proactive in addressing concerns raised.

“The leadership of the Tonse Alliance has preached transformational leadership; they promised this but, they are operating under what we call a transactional leadership. They have maintained the status quo, doing things just like the previous administration was doing,” said Munthali.

Meanwhile, Kawale said at the press briefing that in view of the situation that Malawi is going through, President Lazarus Chakwera requested the organising committee to side with Malawians and cut down on the activities that were proposed for the celebrations, as part of the austerity measures to help save resources that are supposed to be used in the recovery process.

Kawale said: “With that guidance, the technical committee decided that the commemoration will take place in Lilongwe, again, in a scaled down event which will be marked with prayers.

“This year’s celebrations will take place on July 6 at Bingu International Convention Centre Malawi Square, with prayers in the morning and there will be no other activities.”

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