Draconian code
![draconian code draconian code](https://images.slideplayer.com/18/6099766/slides/slide_8.jpg)
His struggle personifies the anger of thousands of victims of the so-called poverty laws. Gwanda ─ who grew with his uncle since he was six ─ calls himself an honest, God-fearing vendor.
![draconian code draconian code](https://slideplayer.com/slide/9312126/28/images/18/Draco’s+Law+Code+7th+century+b.c.e.jpg)
“In simple terms, a rogue is someone who is dishonest and unscrupulous while a vagabond is one with no fixed home who lives an unsettled and wandering life,” Mtambo stated. The constitutional matter ended with a 27-page judgement read by Mtambo, which invalidates the law introduced in Africa by British colonial masters “to maintain smooth rules over colonies.”Īdopted in 1934, the look-alike of Section 4 of the 1824 English Vagrancy Act were also inherited by Nigeria, The Gambia, Zambia, Uganda, Botswana, Seychelles and Tanzania.
![draconian code draconian code](https://www.thebridgenewsng.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/PRESIDENT-BUHARI-PRESIDES-OVER-VIRTUAL-FEC-MEETING-2B.jpg)
They argued that the section infringes on his constitutional entitlements, particularly dignity, security, freedom of movement, right to humane treatment, freedom and the right to equal protection and non-discriminatory tendencies. Gwanda, who was tried for rogue and vagabond at the Blantyre Magistrate’s Court, Engaged lawyer Mandala Mambulasa on Maand petitioned the Chief Justice Andrew Nyirenda to determine the constitutionality of the law.
DRACONIAN CODE CODE
On Tuesday, three High Court judges─ Dr Micheal Mtambo, Zione Ntaba and Sylvester Kalembera ─ declared Section 184(1)(c) of the Penal Code unconstitutional and invalid. Those who refused to give in ended up in overcrowded cells and prisons. Sex workers say some law enforcers force them into risky sexual intercourse in exchange for freedom. Reports are rife of officers who brutally assault suspects and make them pay for their freedom. Rogue and vagabond, popularly known as vakabu, is one of the laws often abused by police officers to victimize a majority of innocent Malawians. His resolve was irrevocable from the beginning to continue with the case where the Attorney General (AG) and the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) were representing the State. The irony is that it took this unfamiliar man, nicknamed Gwape in reference to a duiker on the plastics he sells, to scrapa law that has landed learned Malawians, including lawyers, into congested police cells. “That is why I maintained the case although many friends of mine urged me not to fight the State.” “I believe that poverty is no crime,” says the vendor. Talking about his immense joy following the triumphant ending of a heartfelt battle which painfully begun with a quirky arrest and beatings that left him with a scar on his left earlobe. Throughout the interview, he kept looking down, spoke slowly and steadily gave flashbacks.
![draconian code draconian code](https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cpsprodpb/C2FA/production/_89141994_pausanias.jpg)
The vendor, garbed in stained sports shoes, a faded purple golf shirt and a blue pair of jean trousers, looked shy when asked about his lengthy war on laws that he blames for making poverty a crime. Yesterday, we met Mayeso Gwanda selling plastic bags as usual in the heart of Limbe Market in Blantyre. Lawmakers have moved at a snail’s pace to change some draconian laws and history will record that it took a vendor to get the Constitutional Court to invalidate a section of rogue and vagabond that oppresses the poor.