By Esnath Kalawe
Chiefs in the country have rallied behind government decision for a 21-day lockdown to control spread of the Coronavirus in the country.
The lockdown was to commence Saturday, March 18, 2020 at midnight but was suspended after Human Rights Defenders Coalition (HRDC) obtained a court injunction restraining government to implement it before putting necessary measures to assist citizens while on lockdown.
However, last Friday, Chiefs from all the three regions in the country converged at Bridge View Lodge in Lilongwe where they briefed journalists of their support to government decision to implement the lockdown.
In an interview, Senior Chief Kapeni of Blantyre told journalists that as community leaders, they need to work with government to enforce regulations it has made in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic.
“We share information with the community to enforce the regulations that have been made in the wake of COVID-19.
“As traditional leaders, it is our responsibility that information is shared to people we live with within our locality,” the chief said.
According to Kapeni, chiefs have a big role to play in their communities and, therefore, need to understand the context being communicated on the lockdown.
He said it will then be easy for them to relay the same to people and for them to comply.
“Let us follow the procedures to contain the pandemic despite different poverty levels and political affiliations because Coronavirus is real,” he said.
The chief said some regulations are made for specified period of time for the good of the people.
Paramount Chief Lundu of Chikwawa said they would identify a place in their localities designated for implementing stipulated measures to contain and manage COVID-19 cases with the help of health personnel.
“If we are not going to comply with the regulations on precautionary measures, people will regard us as failures.
“Chiefs at local level shall identify an area for quarantine at community level, just in case some might be identified that are infected with the virus,” said the Paramount Chief.
Senior Chief Tsabango, Dzoole, Khongoni, Lukwa, Chowe, Kasakula and Khombedza were among those that were present during the meeting.
Others were Paramount Chief Kawinga of Machinga, Senior Chief Kameme from Chitipa and Inkosi Mabilabo of Mzimba.
So far, the lockdown has been granted a seven days injunction by the court after Human Rights Defenders Coalition (HRDC) filled an application.
The lockdown would restrict movements of people in order to control the spread of the virus.
According to Minister of Health’s statement issued on April 14, several countries, including Malawi’s neighbours have already imposed such and said it has worked in curtailing the new infections.-MANA
Idiot. Which traditional leader said he supports lock down among those you have quoted?
Tulo basi!
Stop using these compromised chiefs,the bottom line is that all sensible Malawians know that this lock down was and still is a politically motivated move by DPP to avoid the upcoming election in July and has nothing to do with saving lives.
A sensible govt would have consulted the major stakeholders including the opposition to carry the people with them before the lockdown was announced……dictatorships does not work even in times of national emergencies.
Secondly we need a locally tailored lock down solution for our country and not copying what other rich countries are doing.
Western governments introduced lock downs in their countries together with financial packages to make sure no single person dies of hunger in the name of fighting coronavirus. Almost everyone in Europe has running water and reliable electricity supply in their homes so how on earth can we copy a lock down from such countries when less than 5% of our people has electricity which is not even reliable.
In Malawi what we need is to spend our little resources on testing and contact tracing to stop the spread of covid 19. We are lucky that we are a young nation with over 75% of our citizens being below the age of 35 this is good news because covid 19 is deadly to the older generation, the above 50s. Most young people even if they get infected unless they have other underlying healthy issues, they will just have mild symptoms and get better within a few days.
If we come to a point where the situation demands a lock down this should Only be partial lock downs only targeting the hot spots and the government should be prepared to give financial packages to the vulnerable in those hotspots. This will be manageable by our limited resources rather that putting the whole country under lockdown unnecessarily and putting lives at risk of hunger for no reason.
Learn from countries like Ghana where the lock down is only for the capital Accra, learn from South Africa where their unemployed citizens received employment benefits.