HRDC reports Mutharika to African Union

Human Rights Defenders Coalition (HRDC) has asked the African Union (AU) to intervene on what they call Malawi’s political and security situation.
HRDC made the appeal in a letter addressed to AU Chairperson Cyril Ramaphosa who is also the President of South Africa.

In the letter, HRDC has cited developments that have taken place in the country in the aftermath of the February 3 Constitutional Court ruling, which they allege display President Peter Mutharika’s disregard of human rights, failure to uphold the Constitution and lack of respect for other arms of government.

“We can confirm that we wrote the #AfricaUnion for intervention and that the AU Chairperson has acknowledged receipt of the said letter. The message we are sending is the “DIRE STATE OF HUMAN RIGHTS, RULE OF LAW AND GOVERNANCE IN MALAWI & PRAYING FOR YOUR IMMEDIATE INTERVENTION”, reads in part the statement posted on HRDC official facebook page seen by this publication.

HRDC want Ramaphosa to urge Mutharika to assent to the Bills he refused to sign two weeks ago.

On March 17, Mutharika sent his press secretary Mgeme Kalilani to announce that he has withheld assent to four election-related bills that Parliament sent for his nod in February; and that he would not fire Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) commissioners who the Constitutional Court presiding over the presidential election dispute, found to be incompetent and ordered Parliament’s Public Appointments Committee to further assess them. The committee recommended that they be sacked.

Kalilani said the President believes the four bills are unconstitutional and amount to a power grab by the Legislature in a democratic system that thrives on separation of powers.