CAMA describes Chakwera’s State address as ‘uninspiring’

CAMA Executive Director John Kapito

* It was used as a platform to mourn his fellow prominent political leaders that lost lives due to COVID-19

* Has Coronavirus become a pandemic or a killer now because prominent politicians have died?

* The President should have come up with strong effective directives on how to contain COVID-19 spread

*Reminds of some prominent political leaders who claimed there was no COVID-19 during fresh presidential election campaign

By Duncan Mlanjira

Consumer Association of Malawi (CAMA) has described President Lazarus Chakwera’s National Address on the state of the second wave of the COVID-19 as “empty, cold and uninspiring”.

Issued by its Executive Director John Kapito, the statement says Chakwera used the platform to address the nation in order to mourn his fellow prominent political leaders that lost lives due to COVID-19 while forgetting the lives of 200 plus Malawians that also died as a result of COVID-19 and those that are now receiving treatment in various hospitals.

On the day Chakwera spoke to the nation, the number of COVID-19 related deaths were 62 in just 11 days into the New Year, that excluded that day’s deaths of two very senior Cabinet Ministers — late Sidik Mia (Minister of Transport and Public Works as well as Malawi  Congress Party (MCP) Vice-president) and late Lingson Belekanyama (Minister of Local Government and Rural Development).

As of Thursday, there were 10 new COVID-19 related deaths, bringing the death toll in 14 days to 93 (21 by Wednesday evening).

There were 503 new cases, bringing the number of active cases to 4,096 — of which 135 are admitted in 15 hospitals.

Kapito says Malawians expected the President in his national address to come up with strong effective directives on how to contain the COVID-19 spread and wonders why he did not consult other stakeholders before informing Malawians.

“We wish also to inform our prominent politicians, especially the State President, that loss of life of every Malawian is important, irrespective whether that person is poor or prominent politician and that we must never discriminate when we salute their lives or come up with directives in order to contain this serious pandemic. 

“Words matter, words can heal or destroy — our politicians need to be careful on what they say whether it is going to destroy or heal the nation.

“Since the outbreak of the COVID-19, every country has been putting in place various measures in order to contain it at the same time ensuring that their people are made aware of the dangers of COVID-19.

“However, Malawi was not spared at all, unfortunately, some of our prominent political leaders made a number of statements that if repeated today they would destroy their reputations and image.

“Prominent political leaders claimed that there was no COVID-19 and people should not be afraid of it and some ill-informed citizens went further out and took injunction after injunction challenging any measures or any other directives intended to contain and stop the spread of the Coronavirus.

“Malawians believed the message coming from the prominent political leaders that COVID-19 was not a pandemic to be scared of.”

Kapito went further to say COVID-19 has now taken havoc as there is an increase in the number of deaths and infections and “the very same political leaders that said to Malawians that Coronavirus does not exist have become the first victims of the Coronavirus”.

“The same Leaders that said Coronavirus does not exist are now informing Malawians that the pandemic is real and they are pleading to Malawians to adhere to the safety protection protocols. 

“As CAMA we are failing to reconcile how these prominent politicians, including the State President, expect people to trust them considering their earlier negative statements.

“Has Coronavirus become a pandemic or a killer now because closest friends or relations of the prominent politicians have died because of the Coronavirus?

“Has the Coronavirus become real now because we have lost a relation or a close friend? Has the death of few prominent politicians made the U-turn by our leaders to start preaching about the existence of the deadly Coronavirus?

“Would Malawians believe and trust any message from our prominent politicians who for some time spoke negatively about the existence of the Coronavirus in Malawi?”

Kapito said CAMA is dismayed that overall over 200 Malawians have died due to COVID-19 before the deaths of the prominent politicians but there was no national address by the State President, nor directive to have national flags flying at half-mast.

He asks: “Does the lowering of the national flag at half-mast stop the spread of the Coronavirus?”

“There was no interest by the current leadership to have multi sectoral approaches to address the spread of COVID-19 as focal points apart from the national task force.”