High on the demands by the Human Rights Defenders Coalition (HRDC) during its presser titles “Enough is Enough” was a call for Government to fix the fuel supply shortages in the country by 22nd November (today). The HRDC called upon the Government to fix the fuel problem within 21 days from 11th November. Meanwhile, fuel supply has normalized in the country.
On the call for the President to reboot the government system by firing underperforming ministers and officials and hire people that will help him deliver his agenda, the President fired his close ally, Lobin Lowe along with his Deputy Minister, from Agriculture Ministry for, among others failing to deliver on AIP timeline as well presiding over incompetence that resulted in the Ministry being duped by a UK-based firm over fertilizer deals. The President since replaced Lowe with Sam Dalitso Kawale who has turned around situation leading to the President launching the AIP program last weekend.
The HRDC further called upon the President spell out concrete measures for addressing the AIP chores with concrete timelines of when and how this will be achieved. Other than merely spelling out concrete measures, the President has successfully launched the AIP programme and the selling of the commodity has since commenced throughout the country. The
On the popular call to have the acting CEO of National Oil Company of Malawi (Nocma), Helen Buluma fired for presiding over fuel crisis, the Secretary to the President and Cabinet, who is the Board Chair for Nocma, fired Buluma last week.
Meanwhile, the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament embarked on probing people involved and potentially involved in the AIP deal mess that ended in Baarkat Food Ltd duping the Smallholder Farmers Fertilizer Revolving Fund of Malawi (SFFRFM) of money which the Attorney General in on track in recovering.
Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) has hinted that, as it is awaiting the National Assembly to do its task, his office “will embark on criminal prosecutions of all individuals who will be pointed out by evidence as having committed crimes in the matter”.
