Minister of Health Jappie Mhango and Minister of Information Mark Botomani have refused to resign, saying they have served Malawians well and have done nothing wrong.
The Human Rights Defenders Coalition (HRDC) last week demanded the ministers’ resignation claiming they were pocketing allowances for Covid-19 duties.
But in an interview after a meeting with HRDC leaders on Tuesday, Mhango said they will not resign.
“We want to make sure that coronavirus is contained and that’s exactly what we will be doing going forward so there is no need to resign because nothing wrong happened”, Mhango said.
Last week, a document was circulated on social media showing that the ministers were to pocket K450,000 for travelling to districts on Covid-19 duties.
Botomani and Mhango were also captured in a video talking about allowances and this led to the HRDC’s calls for the two to resign.
Mhango said the issue was complicated by people who do not have information.
“The information that had gone viral was actually a doctored document, it was not official document that had come from our official sources. Someone got the origonal document and put figures so it was a fake document that went on social media and the Minister of Information after seeing the document had to show me what is on social media and he was showing me at Capital hill when I was expected to address the media.
“He was very surprised because we as ministers didn’t know about that document and the figures that were in the said document and that’s what we were discussing on that video that went viral and it’s where the issue of allowances came out because in that we mentioned allowances that were written on that document”, said Mhango.
In his remarks, Minister of Information Mark Botomani said he will not resign because he has done nothing wrong.
Meanwhile, HRDC has insisted that the two should resign to allow thorough investigation on the matter.
The grouping has also said it will report the issue to the Anti-Corruption Bureau.
