{"id":71939,"date":"2018-11-22T02:43:32","date_gmt":"2018-11-22T00:43:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.times.mw\/?p=71939"},"modified":"2018-11-22T02:43:32","modified_gmt":"2018-11-22T00:43:32","slug":"government-desperate-csos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/2018\/11\/22\/government-desperate-csos\/","title":{"rendered":"Government desperate\u2014CSOs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><em>By Rebecca Chimjeka: <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.times.mw\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/charles-kajoloweka.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-71132\" src=\"http:\/\/www.times.mw\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/charles-kajoloweka-281x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"281\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/charles-kajoloweka-281x300.jpg 281w, https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/charles-kajoloweka.jpg 332w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 281px) 100vw, 281px\" \/><\/a>Civil society organisations (CSOs) have said the gazetting of non-governmental organisations (NGO) Bill clearly shows how desperate the government is to gag the voiceless.<\/p>\n<p>The CSO\u2019s members spoke in Lilongwe on Tuesday after a day-long meeting over the NGO Amendment Bill which is expected to be tabled in the current sitting of Parliament.<\/p>\n<p>Human Rights Defenders Coalition Chairperson, Timothy Mtambo, said the bill is undemocratic and repressive.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>\u201cNGOs are not terrorists. It\u2019s shocking to see how the DPP [Democratic Progressive Party]-led government is desperate to table this law. We will fight this no matter how long it may take,\u201d <\/em>Mtambo said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>He said the NGO Act is a tool which the government wants to use to shut NGOs voices.<\/p>\n<p>Youth and Society Executive Director, Charles Kajoloweka, said the government did not consult the CSOs on the bill.<\/p>\n<p>He said the bill is against international human rights law on freedom of association.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>\u201cWe need a robust law. We are not resisting the law but the manner in which the law has been crafted leaves a lot to be desired,\u201d<\/em> Kajoloweka said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>One of the activists, Mankhumbo Munthali, said the Law Commission should handle the proposed law reform.<\/p>\n<p>He said by creating an NGO Regulatory Authority, the government wants to weaken council for non-governmental organisations (Congoma) which, he said, is contrary to human rights obligations.<\/p>\n<p>In the bill, the government has proposed a K15 million fine if any NGO operates without accreditation.<\/p>\n<p>The bill states that the government will appoint people to NGO Regulation Authority comprising 11 members which Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs will appoint.<\/p>\n<p>Minister of Justice, Samuel Tembenu, said the government was not targeting anyone, adding that they consulted on the bill.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Rebecca Chimjeka: Civil society organisations (CSOs) have said the gazetting of non-governmental organisations (NGO) Bill clearly shows how desperate the government is to gag the voiceless. The CSO\u2019s members spoke in Lilongwe on Tuesday after a day-long meeting over the NGO Amendment Bill which is expected to be tabled in the current sitting of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":24177,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-71939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71939"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71939\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":71942,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71939\/revisions\/71942"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}