A Motorcade for the visiting Jill Biden, wife to United States Vice President, Joe Biden, was Tuesday forced to make a u-turn in Zomba after Chancellor College (Chanco) student blocked the road in protest over tuition fees hike.
Ironically, Minister of Education, Science and Technology Emmanuel Fabiano was the senior Malawi Government official on the motorcade.
Biden, who arrived in the country on Monday, was visiting some United States-funded projects in Blantyre, Zomba and Machinga when the vehicles that were part of the convoy stopped abruptly at around 11:30 am in an area just before the junction to Matawale Township.
Biden was on the day of the incident expected to visit Machinjiri in Blantyre, Msamba primary school in Zomba and Mtubwi School in Machinga.
After visiting Machinjiri and Msamba where the US second lady interacted with the locals and inspected food security and school feeding programme, the motorcade embarked on the last part of the Tuesday tour to Machinga but it was never to be.
The apparently unprepared police were forced to immediately send a number of patrol vehicles to the demonstrations scene but it was too late for probably the service’s test of the day.
After five to 10 minutes of contemplating on the way forward, the motorcade moved back to nearby Eastern Region Police Headquarters where Biden, US Ambassador to Malawi, Virginia Palmer, Fabiano and World Food Programme officials spent some 20 minutes before the decision not to move on was reached.
The decision to go back to Blantyre was reached even after reports that police officers had managed to chase away the demonstrating students and cleared the remains of burnt motor vehicle tyres that students placed on the road.
When later asked whether this is a dent in the police’s preparedness in providing security to high profile persons, both national police spokesperson Nicholas Gondwa and Eastern Region Police publicist Joseph Sauka refused to comment.
As Senior Police officers from both Zomba Police Station and Eastern Region headquarters kept banging heads with the American security detail on the way forward, some officers were very busy controlling traffic, involved in teargas battles and other physical battles with students.
The situation forced Chanco Principal Richard Tambulasi to release a memo informing the college staff and students of the emergency closure of the institution.
“I write to inform you that due to the current illegal demonstrations by students and subsequent security threats, the College has been closed with immediate effect. Students must leave the campus by 4:00 Pm today, July 19 2016,” reads the memo.
President for Students Union at Chancellor College (SUCC) Sylvester James described the closure as unfortunate.
He said the union council will meet today to discuss the way forward.
On Monday, police and the students were also involved in running battles which saw police vehicle smashed and a riffle that students grabbed from a police officer destroyed.
12 students who were arrested during the fracas on Monday have been released on bail Earlier, James blamed the police for fueling the Monday protest.
“The resolution that we made after our general assembly was that we should hold a peaceful vigil but after that it was also agreed that it was necessary that we march to the Unima council offices to let them know that we have started the sit-in and it was just for a day so that when we come back we sit down, it was in that process that the police disrupted everything and a fracas erupted,” he said.
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