A social media campaign against Malawi President Joyce Banda is gathering pace, with citizens demanding that she resign over reports that dozens of people were buried in a mass grave because of the shutdown of the country's major hospital mortuary.
The Kamuzu Central Hospital mortuary in the capital Lilongwe was closed down on Monday last week after three of its four cold rooms broke down, resulting in bodies piling up.
Officials said about 32 bodies had to be buried in a mass grave.
The revelations triggered outrage on social media directed at Banda, who pledged to clean up the government when she came to power in 2012 following the sudden death of President Bingu wa Mutharika. However, the recent arrests of senior government officials for corruption appear to have hurt Banda's image.
''I had respect for Joyce Banda but she has lost my trust. She's using taxpayers' money to campaign for her party by distributing cows and maize, but she has no time for the dead," posted Limban Maxwell this week.
Banda's spokesman, Tusekele Mwanyongo, described the calls for her to resign as "useless", saying she was doing her best to improve the welfare of Malawians. He said a contractor had been hired to fix the cold rooms.
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