The Human Rights Defenders Coalition (HRDC) has told President Lazarus Chakwera to stop blaming others for sabotaging government, but instead, he should blame himself for protecting failures within his circle.
HRDC Interim Vice Chairperson Michael Kaiyatsa made the remarks in Lilongwe on Saturday when he was addressing members of the press.
The remarks come months after Chakwera said he will fire underperforming ministers and officers and hire people that will help him deliver his agenda.
“We take the liberty to remind the President that he himself has complained, on more than one occasion, that he feels that some of his Cabinet Ministers and Government officials are performing below par, thereby sabotaging his Government’s development agenda.
“Our observation is that Chakwera is sabotaging himself by dithering in dismissing non-performing ministers and Government officials. The President has the prerogative to fire and hire a new Cabinet and he is to blame for his Government’s inefficiency.
“We can thus conclude that the President is sabotaging himself and, in the process, he has lost the trust of Malawians who expected him to do more. We expect the President to use his powers to direct law enforcing authorities to take action against the pilferage of public resources,” he said.
Among others, Kaiyatsa cited Chakwera’s silence to act on allegations National Oil Company of Malawi (NOCMA) acting Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Helen Buluma levelled against Secretary to the President and Cabinet (SPC) Collen Zamba.
Appearing before Public Appointments Committee (PAC) recently, Buluma, said Zamba was pressuring her into awarding fuel supply contracts to a list of companies without following procedures.
In one of the deals, Buluma said she was forced to allegedly involve a person identified as ‘Chief’ from Nigeria and a Malawian based motivational speaker, Evalista Kamwangala.
Kaiyatsa said Buluma raised very serious and pertinent allegations during her appearance at Parliament.
“These were serious allegations that were aimed at the Secretary to the President and Cabinet (SPC) which the President cannot ignore.
“The President has previously suspended officer 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 Chakwera is shielding her,” said Kaiyatsa
