By Our Correspondent, LILONGWE
Malawi
President of Malawi, Lazarus Chakwera says he did not wear a mask in Tanzania because people in Tanzania do not wear masks as they believe that Coronavirus was eliminated in their country.
The Malawi leader was speaking upon arrival
from Tanzanian on Thursday.
Chakwera was criticised in Malawi for not
wearing a mask during his two day stay in Tanzania where he held talks with
President John Pombe Magufuli and also carried out public engagements.
Speaking Kamuzu International Airport today,
the Malawi leader said he was doing what his hosts do in order to earn their
trust.
“In terms of what Tanzania has experienced,
their tradition is not to wear a mask because they believe they have been over
the pandemic and so it’s a question of trying to balance what our tradition is
and what our diplomatic preferences would be in order for us to establish true
relationships based on trust,” he said.
On the Lake Malawi wrangle, Chakwera said
Magufuli described the wrangle as a non-issue and they did not discuss it
during the trip.
According to Chakwera, the two leaders first
wanted to strengthen relations, build trust and develop friendship before
discussing sensitive issues.
“So that when we talk about sensitive issues we
talk from a position of friendship and not from a position of hostility,” said
Chakwera.
He added that the trip was a success as they
discussed various issues include trade, mining and transport.
According to Chakwera, they want to make sure
that the two countries create an environment where businesspeople from Tanzania
and Malawi partner together in various areas in order to integrate a vision
needed for the SADC region.
Malawi’s president cut short a three-day visit to Tanzania on Thursday as women’s organizations in his country prepared to stage a nationwide protest over his failure to ensure that women receive a fair share of public appointments.
Lazarus Chakwera, who arrived in Tanzania on
Wednesday, left a day earlier than scheduled after holding talks with his
counterpart John Magufuli. He also visited the Malawi Cargo Center in Dar es
Salaam and held a private meeting with a number of business investors,
Tanzania’s local news website The Citizen reported.
State House in Lilongwe confirmed that Chakwera
has returned home to deal with the demonstrations organized for Friday by
various women’s organizations in the country in protest against "gender
imbalance," regarding it as an urgent domestic priority, according to the
report.
The Women’s Manifesto Movement (WMM),
comprising several women’s empowerment civil society organizations, are
planning to demonstrate against what they consider Chakwera’s failure to
fulfill the Gender Equality Act requirement of 60:40 representation of either
sex in public appointments, slamming what they considered “systematic
discrimination against women in public appointments.
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