Government to expedite National Elderly Persons Act

The Government through the Ministry of Gender and Social Welfare reveals it is working on expediting the National Elderly Persons bill towards minimizing the rising cases of human rights abuses against the elderly.

Newly appointed Minster of Gender Jean Sendeza made the sentiments during a press briefing in Lilongwe.

Her revelation comes against a background of recent cases in Mzimba and Nsanje Districts where some elderly women were beaten in public on accusation of killing others through witchcraft.

According to Sendeza, in the last two years 26 elderly persons have lost their lives through violent acts of mob violence on suspicion of practicing witchcraft, acts mostly perpetrated by the youth.

She noted that the much awaited national elderly person’s bill is currently being scrutinized by the ministry of justice before being handed over to the relevant parliamentary committee.

The Minister has highlighted that the bill is very crucial and believes it will help in ending the vice through stiff penalties to be stipulated in it once done.

‘’It is difficult to talk about penalties in the proposed law now because of the changes that might come but there are different punitive penalties depending on the type of the violent act one has committed,’’ said Sendeza.

Meanwhile, the Programme Manager for the Malawi Network for Older Persons Organization (MANEPO) Linda Matita highlights her organization will continue to push for the bill describing it as crucial in dealing with the vice.

“We will continue to push for the enactment of this proposed law, because we believe that’s the only way elderly persons in the country can be saved from these barbaric acts,’’ Matita said.

Adding his voice on the matter, Director for the disability and elderly rights at the Malawi Human Rights Commission (MHRC) Wycliffe Masoo, notes that the acts are denting the image of Malawi.

He highlighted that his office is currently working with other stakeholders including the Ministry of Gender, to push for the expedition of cases involving some offenders whose cases stalled long ago.

“One of the measures we want to use to push for such cases, is to engage the Chief Justice and come up with a practice direction on the same,” said Masoo.

Currently, Malawi has about 1.3 Million elderly persons most of whom live in the rural areas and are subjected to different forms of abuse and torture due to their age.