Africa-Press – Malawi. Organizers of the September 28, 2022, anti-government demonstrations have suffered unprecedented loss of public trust following the refusal by Malawians to participate in a street protest to force President Dr. Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera and his vice, Dr. Saulos Klaus Chilima, to resign.
South Africa-based Charles Ben Longwe, Kingsley Mpaso and Human Rights Ambassadors (HRA) organized the protest to force Chakwera and Chilima to resign over what they described as failure to govern Malawi.
They claimed voiceless Malawians had tasked them to demand the resignation of the presidency. Ironically, when it was time to take to the streets, none of the so-called voiceless citizen turned up.
This was the second battering to the demonstration that has already suffered another beating at the High Court in Lilongwe. A day before the protest, High Court Judge Simeon Mdeza ordered Longwe, Mpaso and HRA not to participate in the demonstrations because there is an injunction restraining them to do so.
Mdeza said Longwe, Mpaso, Ida Mazinga, HRA and unknown persons remain restrained from holding demonstrations by order of injunction issued in the case of Kwenda and others versus the HRA team.
However, the judge allowed Redson Munlo, one of the organizers, to proceed holding the demonstrations on grounds that he would not conduct a violent and armed demonstration Longwe and HRA propagated.
Ironically, even Munlo did not take to the streets despite vowing to proceed with the protest. By 11:30am, the so-called concerned Malawians had not turned up at Wakawaka in readiness for the protest.
Vendors ran their businesses normally as police officers patrolled the area. Malawi’s renowed and revered governance and human rights activist Undule Mwakasungula said this should tell demonstration organizers that Malawians no longer trust them. Mwakasungula said Malawians have realized that street protests do not benefit anyone save for the self-enriching organizers.
“It’s no longer a secret that Malawians have lost trust in civil society organizations; hence, they would not turn up for the protest. CSO leaders need to change their approach by giving dialogue a chance instead of rushing to the streets when they have grievances with the government,” he said.
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