Human Rights Defenders Coalition (HRDC) has issued a new wave of demands including the suspension of Secretary to the President and Cabinet (SPC) Colleen Zamba for allegedly pushing to secure illegal fuel supply deals.

The HRDC said this in a statement which analyses the 21-day period it gave government to iron out challenges such as fuel crisis, dismissing National Oil Company of Malawi (Nocma) former acting chief executive officer Helen Buluma.

In the spotlight: Zamba

The coalition also calls on President Lazarus Chakwera to fire underperforming Cabinet ministers and civil servants and launch criminal investigations against those involved in the K750 million dubious fertiliser deal, failing which they will organise anti-government demonstrations.

HRDC, however, seems to have softened on the planned protests, saying they have given government probation to address the remaining demands having stabilised the fuel supply and sacked Buluma.

The coalition has since filed a fresh ultimatum whose new demands are that Zamba and Chakwera should respond to the allegations that she tried to influence fuel supply contracts.

Buluma implicated her during her appearance in Parliament, saying the SPC wanted Nocma to strike deals without following procedures.

The statement reads in part: “The President has previously suspended officers and aides close to him on suspicion of corruption and abuse of power.

“The fact that the President has not taken any action against allegations made against the SPC or commented on the issue is highly suspicious and gives the impression that Dr Chakwera is shielding her.

“Further to that, we demand the SPC to respond to the allegations levelled against her or step aside to allow the law to take its course.”

Other demands are that the fuel crisis should not re-emerge, transparency in the recruitment of the new Nocma chief executive officer, impose a ban on non-essential travel for public offers until the country’s economy stabilises and sort out “all teething problems in the AIP distribution.”

Asked about the future of the demonstrations, the coalition’s national chairperson Gift Trapence said in a written response: “HRDC has not completely cancelled the plans to hold demos. Rather, we are monitoring the situation and will announce a new date once we see no change.”

On his part, Minister of Information and Digitisation Gospel Kazako said the government will continue to address the issues which HRDC raised.

“The issues that HRDC has accepted are sorted, have been done and implemented by this government. It is a process which is in line with our plans. We will continue to do so,” he said.

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