LILONGWE (Times Media)-The Malawi Human Rights Commission's (MHRC) has faulted several aspects of President Joyce Banda's rule.
In its state of human rights report, the Commission has – among other areas – condemned the politicisation of the President's food distribution, the unprocedural dismissal of top government officials and failure to mitigate the effects of her economic reforms, particularly the devaluation of the kwacha.
The MHRC also faulted the Banda administration on the planned labour export to Kuwait and South Korea, the continued monopoly by the ruling People's Party (PP) of state radio and television and failure by the government to sign the Table Mountain Declaration on media freedom.
The Commission also called for publication of proceeds from the mining industry and expediency in the prosecution of those behind the murders of demonstrators on July 20, 2011 and the killing of Polytechnic student Robert Chasowa, the solution of the anti-defection Section 65 of the Constitution stalemate and the tabling and passing of the proposed assets declaration bill.
It further called for clarity on presidential pardons of prisoners following the outrage resulting from the pardon of certain inmates linked to President Banda in July last year.
On the food situation, MHRC said its own investigations into the availability of maize in the country confirmed shortages in Admarc depots but criticised the government response to the issue.
"Furthermore, while commendable, the efforts of the State President and the ruling party through the country-wide maize and maize flour distribution programme did not offer most needed strategic solution to the problem.
"The PP programme led to the politicised approach to dealing with the situation, which, potentially, does not guarantee equitable distribution of the commodity to all deserving vulnerable persons. Such approaches raise the possibility of putting political priorities above fundamental human rights priorities," read part of the report.
The body also faulted the Banda led administration's economic reforms for the increased cost of living through despite the body observing that the government's policies were restricted when it took office hence the devaluation was "a foregone conclusion".
"Primarily, the Commission observes that the economic reforms introduced by the PP government have led to a significant erosion of the right to a decent standard of living due to rising costs of goods and services on the market.
"The 49 percent devaluation and eventual floatation of the Malawi kwacha as well as the Automatic Fuel Pricing Mechanism led to a fall of the purchasing power and high inflation rate," said MHRC.
The report also criticised government for what it termed as 'unprocedural and unlawful' firing of some top public officials between June and December 2012, which resulted in hefty sums of money paid out as compensation.
But Government spokesperson Moses Kunkuyu on Thursday dismissed the alleged politicisation of maize distribution.
"The distribution of government food relief was done by non-political agents such as the disaster relief department and the President as an individual is also entitled to distribute what God has blessed her with. The majority of the maize was distributed through chiefs and we are yet to see if the chiefs were political as well," said Kunkuyu who is also Minister of Information.
But speaking at the press briefing, one of commissioners Benedicto Kondowe said MHRC was unable to find out where the ruling party was obtaining its maize as government was not cooperating with its investigators.
"The Commission has not come to identify the source of the maize the President was distributing. From time to time, we have asked government to tell us where the maize is coming from. We have also failed to make government explain where the damaged maize at the silos was dumped to, we have tried as a Commission to also contact the National Food Reserve Agency on the matter but again we have failed and this might create room for speculation among Malawians on the source of that maize," he said.
Chairperson Sophie Kalinde earlier said the Commission has made several recommendations to government to demonstrate its obligation to the promotion and protection of human rights in the country.
President Banda
