By Draxon Maloya
State President Lazarus Chakwera has condemned in strongest terms actions by some police officers when enforcing Covid-19 preventive measures. Speaking in his Sunday evening address,
Chakwera said some of the funds disbursed towards the fight against the pandemic should be used to train police officers for them to discharge their duties diligently and effectively. The Malawi leader also reminded the police that Malawi is not a police state.
“Police should be properly trained to enforce covid-19 preventive measures in a professional manner, Malawi is not a police state, Malawi has a police service and not a police force, be warned that there is no room for police brutality in the country,” Chakwera said.
The president also directed the Agriculture Development and Marketing Company (Admarc) to subsidize the price of maize during this period.
In his opening remarks, the head of state also warned some of the clusters benefiting from the Covid-19 relief funds against mismanagement of the money.
“I will deal with any cluster that will misbehave in the way how they will use the Covid-19 relief funds allocated to them,” the head of state stressed.
President Chakwera also disclosed that the Ministry of Finance complied with his directive when he ordered it to release funds which have been used in the procurement of oxygen cylinders some of which have already been supplied to hospitals while some are still in transit.
Meanwhile, a total of 18 Mzuzu based Malawians of Asian origin are reported to have succumbed to the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic since December 2020.