HRDC, DPP in war of words
Opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has accused the Human Rights Defenders Coalition (HDRC) of being partisan and failing to hold the Tonse Alliance government accountable.
But the HRDC has trashed the accusation, arguing that it is non-partisan and carries out its advocacy mandate objectively.
DPP spokesperson Shadric Namalomba said in a statement on Friday that Malawians must start questioning HRDC’s effectiveness in scrutinising the government in unbiased and objective advocacy.
Reads in part the statement: “HRDC is partisan and any statements they make today are only a smokescreen to blindfold Malawians that they still exist, when in true sense, HRDC is dead and buried.”
The statement comes barely days after the HRDC took a swipe at DPP for failing to provide checks and balances to the Tonse Alliance government.
In their 2023 end of year statement, the HRDC said infighting in the former governing party diverted leaders’
focus from overseeing government actions.
But in the DPP statement, Namalomba said the HRDC has no moral ground to criticise the DPP on the basis that the civil society organisation has lost its credibility due to its alleged partisan state and that it has proven to be an extension of the Tonse Alliance administration.
He said it is not surprising that the HRDC is failing to hold President Lazarus Chakwera accountable for maladministration in parastatals where alleged Malawi Congress Party sympathisers are being deployed.
“HRDC is afraid to bite the hand that has been feeding them,
and they let go all the maladministration taking place from Chakwera’s State House down to the local councils,” further reads the statement.
It said if it were during the tenure of the DPP, the HRDC would have mobilised Malawians to hold nationwide protests due to the continuous rise in prices of food and non-food items triggered by the 44 percent devaluation of the Malawi kwacha, alleged corruption and other purported injustices.
While stressing that the HRDC has lost its teeth because its agenda was to remove the DPP from power, the statement alleged that the Tonse Alliance government weakened the organisation in 2020 by appointing some of its members in ministerial positions, including diplomatic missions.
The statement was referring to the appointment of HRDC’s former chairperson Timothy Mtambo as Minister of National Unity and deployment of its members Billy Mayaya to Brussels, Luke Tembo to the Malawi Mission to Ethiopia and African Union, and Reverend MacDonald Sembereka to the United Nations in New York.
But HRDC chairperson Gift Trapence argued in a separate interview on Friday that they have always been neutral.
He said: “DPP needs to understand that as civil society organisations, when we are carrying out our mandate, political party alignment issues do not arise.
“We led Malawians in holding the DPP government accountable because of poor governance and state of the economy. These were neutral and objective issues that needed to be taken head on.”
Trapence said as HRDC, they will always advise political parties in government or in opposition to carry out their right roles to ensure that government delivers on its mandate of serving Malawians.
