President Professor Arthur Peter Mutharika has criticized Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) over April 27 national wide protests, saying the grouping wanted to create a state of chaos, panic and fear to make Malawi ungovernable.

Mutharika said this during his State of the Nation Address delivered at Parliament today in the capital Lilongwe.

In his speech Mutharika said many people in the country do not want to distinguish politics from development.

“We are a nation that carries our politics too far to the point of destroying development.

“There are people whose only dream is aspiring to destroy this country. For example, the recent demonstrations were planned to trigger riots which was to lead to breaking and burning of property.

“They wanted to create a state of chaos, panic and fear to make Malawi ungovernable. While we are rebuilding the economy, there are people who think of destroying it. This is unacceptable. We enjoy our freedom of expression. But our political freedom must never bring disorder in this country,” said Mutharika.

He added: “We want to develop this country. There are people who cannot respect the principles of our governance. Our respect for governance must begin with our respect for this august House. We cannot be Parliamentarians who make laws in this House and go out to demonstrate against our own laws.”