President Laz cancels Malawi independence celebrations amidst Covid-19 threat

Newly elected President Lazarus Chakwera  was set to be inaugurated this Monday at Bingu National Stadium in Lilongwe during a ceremony which would have also marked  56th Malawi Independence Celebration  have been cancelled amidst threat of coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic due to rapid increase of  virus cases the country has so far registered.

Chakwera, was already  sworn in as Malawi’s sixth President at the Malawi Square in Lilongwe  alongside Vice-President Saulos Chilima last week.

But the President who  also expected to deliver his inauguration speech,  said the stadium event will not go ahead, instead inauguration will be restricted to 100 invited people at Kamuzu Barracks.

“In view of this accelerating rate of local transmission and its wide geographical spread, I have decided to cancel the celebration to prevent any persons who may be exposed to the virus in one part of the country from spreading it to other parts as they travel to and from the celebrations,” said Chakwera.

Chakwera, therefore, urged  members of the public who were planning to travel to the capital for the celebrations to cancel their travel plans accordingly.

“I know that those of you who were planning to attend the celebrations had already gone to some expense in making preparations, but I am counting on your good nature and good sense to see as I do that your health and safety is of paramount importance,” he said.

Meanwhile, the inauguration will proceed in a scaled down event.

Chakwera’s predecessors have used the inauguration speech to provide policy direction, especially on the economy, in the coming five years in a country that is clocking 56 years of independence on July 6, but has remained one of the poorest in the world, relying on donors for 40 percent of its recurrent budget and 80 percent of the development budget.

President Chakwera inherits a country deeply divided, politically, regionally and ethnically. With an economy not much better than it was at independence in 1964, with poverty deeply entrenched, with a government steeped in corruption. And with a Covid-19 pandemic spreading.

Chakwera  defeated immediate former president Peter Mutharika by around 59% to 40% in the 23 June election which was a rerun ordered by the courts of the elections held in May 2019. Mutharika won that election but then Malawi’s Constitutional Court annulled it in February 2020 because of extensive vote rigging.

It was only the second known time in Africa’s history that a court had annulled an election and certainly one which the incumbent leader had won. The first was in Kenya in 2017.

On being sworn in last Sunday, Chakwera promised “a government that serves, not a government that rules; a government that inspires, not a government that infuriates; a government that listens, not a government that shouts; a government that fights for you, not against you”.

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