Malawi government invites Cama to a meeting following Jan 17 petition

Minister of Information and Civic Education Moses Kunkuyu has disclosed that government has extended an invitation to Consumers’ Association of Malawi (Cama) for a meeting following the petition that Cama presented to government on January 17.

“We would like to agree with the leadership of the organisation on how we can move from here. Our verbal proposal was for a meeting Wednesday (yesterday) but that depends on whether they can be ready then.

“We will follow up our proposal with a formal invitation to the talks as we believe that would be in the best interest of the two sides,” Kunkuyu said.

Cama Executive Director John Kapito confirmed he had a telephone call from Principal Secretary for the Ministry of Information Antony Livuza requesting a meeting for yesterday but the organisation is suggesting Friday instead.

Kapito said although the January 17 petition was addressed to President Joyce Banda and Cama would have desired a response from her office, the association was free for a meeting on Friday.

“We wrote to the president and not the minister. However, what I informed the PS [Principal Secretary] is that Wednesday may not be ideal for us because we have other engagements.

We proposed Friday,” Kapito said. On January 17, Cama led a peaceful demonstration and presented a petition to the government on its decision to float the local currency, a decision the association argues is hitting hard on the consumers as prices of commodities keep rising.

Hours after President Banda delivered her State of the Nation Address in Parliament on Friday in which she asserted the tough times were almost over, Malawi Energy Regulatory Authority (Mera) announced new higher prices of fuel sending fears of even higher commodity prices on the market.

Prices of fuel have been rising since the Banda administration adopted the Automatic Price Mechanism last year, another policy that Cama has been critical about.