Government has clarified that this year`s July 6 independence celebrations will only be conducted in Lilongwe with only observance of prayers in an open ground at BICC`s Malawi Square in the City.

According to Chairperson of the Celebrations Richard Chimwendo Banda the scaling down of Budget for the cerebrations from K244 million to less than K50 million means that the celebrations will only be observed in Lilongwe.

He said: “And because of the scaling down of our activities, we have also reduced substantially the amount of resources to be used.

“We had a budget of about K244 million but now we have a budget of less than K50 million which is coming because we had already printed the cloth, we still need to do some decoration across all the cities,” he said.

Chimwendo Banda added that the celebrations will be limited to only 200 invited guests with strict observance of Coronavirus preventive regulations.

“We have cancelled the celebrations in Mzuzu likewise in Blantyre, and what is going with Lilongwe function is not going to be the way it was planned, is going to be prayers alone.

“Because we want to limit the numbers and we have come out of the auditorium going to have it at an open square where only 200 members, according to the covid regulations, will be allowed and it’s going to be strict on invitation and attendance,” he said.

Chimwendo Banda reiterated that what has been cancelled is the attendance of people but the decoration and everything will continue and also whatever logistics was made for Lilongwe function apart from food, dances and other celebrations what is going on are prayers with a limited number of people.