Malawi varsity students bar MPs from leaving parliament grounds

Hundreds of college students, angered by the Malawi parliament’s failure to pass the budget since May, Monday afternoon barred cabinet ministers and MPs from leaving parliament grounds until they received assurances from them to give the budget priority over other issues.

The students, from the University of Malawi’s, pelted stones and other objects at opposition legislators in full view of the police, while shouting obscenities at opposition leader John Tembo of the Malawi Congress Party, the former founding party of post-independent Malawi.

It took several attempts, mainly by senior cabinet ministers, to convince the students who gathered at the gates of the parliament to cool the students’ tempers.

Finance Minister Goodall Gondwe told the irate students that the budget would soon be passed because everyone was in favour of it, including the opposition.

"We are confident that the budget will be passed soon. Even the opposition parliamentarians also want it to be passed," Gondwe said.

Khumbo Soko, Students Union President at Chancellor College in Zomba, a constituent campus of the university 330 km south of Lilongwe, said the students would remain in the capital until the budget is passed.

"If the budget is rejected, it means that the colleges will be closed and this will disturb our academic calendar," a worried Soko said.

Meanwhile, the High Court in Blantyre Monday evening refused to grant government an order to vacate an injunction obtained by opposition parliamentarians to stop parliament from reconvening.

As a result, Attorney General Jane Ansah through state lawyers Rose Kanyuka and Maxton Mbendera will now have to appeal the high court decision to the Supreme Court.