Government has described some human rights activists as people who don’t appreciate positive developments made by the current regime but instead they chose to remain critic.
Minister of Information and digitalisation, Gospel Kazako, said this to YFM online, when he was asked to respond to the calls by some Civil Society Organisations and concerned citizens who held a press briefing on Wednesday demanding President Lazarus Chakwera to fire some top government officials accusing them of intimidating the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) director Marthe Chizuma.
The officers mentioned include the Attorney General Thabo Chakaka-Nyirenda, Director of Public Prosecutions Steven Kayuni and the Inspector General of Malawi Police Service, George Kainja whom, according to the rights activists are interfering with ACB’s investigations on businessman Zunneth Sattar’s corruption scandal.
Kazako said: “They must come up with tangible evidence to support their allegations otherwise most of these people have chosen to distance themselves from the reality on the ground.”
He further warned that it is illegal to say things publicly without tangible evidence.
He has therefore described them as “people who have Government hits back at human rights activists”.
On intervention towards the fight against corruption, Kazako said government has pumped enough funds into the ACB.
He added that Malawi has recently risen with 15 steps on the corruption index which is an indicator of doing well in the fight against corruption.
In a media briefing on Thursday in Lilongwe, the rights activists led by Sylvester Namiwa of Centre for Democracy and Economic Development Initiatives (CDEDI) and Phunziro Mvula of Social Revolution Movement (SRM) said Chakwera has 14 days ultimatum to fire the mentioned officers or face what they called “never ending vigils at capital Hill”.
