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Police block pastors demonstration

  1. Posted on Friday 1 January 2010 - 09:34
    Chancy Namadzunda
    Image of Chancy Namadzunda
    By Chancy Namadzunda

    Heavily armed Malawi police officers yesterday sorrounded Livingstonia CCAP synod offices in Mzuzu, Northern Malawi to stop the pastors' match to petition the country's president Bingu wa Mutharika against against secondary school selection which the officers said was illegal.

    The synod suspects that the government used the proposed quota system which is highly objected by the region.

    "Th synod match is illigal and the police had to stop it," said Mzuzu police spokesperson Edward Longwe.

    But some synod officials said they sought permission from the city assembly but they did not recieve any responce.

    Instead, they matched to St Andrews CCAP Church where the petition was read.

    Among other things, the petition states that the quota system which was outlawed in 1993; is discriminatory and not a solution to equitable access to education.

    The system wa successfully outlawed in 1993 when Charles Mhango, Ambokire Salimu, William Kaunda and Christopher Chilenga as students of Malawi University, challenged it in High Court.

    "Therefore, Its reintroduction and implementation is therefore, a contempt of court," reads the petition.

    Minister of Information and Civic Education Leckford Thotho has appealed to the synod to behave like a church,

    Malawi Law Society president Samuel Tembenu advised the church to take the matter to court if it is aggrieved.

    "If the synod feels strongly that their rights are being violeted, they should turn to the courts," Tembenu told the local media

    The 2009 selection list shows that pupils from the Central Region dominated selection to national secondary schools in the North with 222 pupils against 203 from the home region

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