Differences within Human Rights Defenders Coalition (HRDC) have culminated into a court battle with an ad hoc committee seeking a court order challenging the legitimacy of the current leadership and force internal reforms.
The committee’s demands include a call for an annual general meeting (AGM) to elect new leadership and disclosure of donor funding.
The ad hoc committee’s vice-chairperson Sammy Aaron said the legal action follows failed efforts to resolve the impasse through consultations with, among others, the NGO Regulatory Authority (Ngora).
“We have been engaging various offices… but those discussions have not borne anything positive,” he said.
Aaron argued that HRDC’s failure to hold an AGM since its formation raises “serious governance concerns” and weakens internal accountability.
He warned that the governance lapses within HRDC risk eroding the coalition’s moral authority.
“If we are failing to exercise leadership qualities within our institution, how can we hold government to account?” said Aaron.
But HRDC chairperson Michael Kaiyatsa dismissed the claims, denying any meaningful engagement with the dissenting group and insisting the leadership is acting within the law.
“They have never come to my office… The only interaction I recall was a single phone call, which I initiated,” he said.
Rights activist Benedicto Kondowe, cited as an intermediary, declined to comment on the substance of the dispute, but urged restraint.
The standoff lays bare deeper questions about governance, legitimacy and accountability within one of Malawi’s most influential civil society bodies, an organisation that rose to prominence between 2018 and 2020 for leading mass protests that helped force a court-ordered fresh presidential election.
Kaiyatsa assumed leadership late last year after then chairperson Gift Trapence stepped down and endorsed him. Trapence had succeeded founding chairperson Timothy Mtambo, who exited in July 2020 to join frontline politics when he was appointed Cabinet minister by former president Lazarus Chakwera.
