Rafiq Hajat (14 September 1955 – 13 September 2021) was a prominent Malawian civil rights activist. He was born in Blantyre. He was the director for the Institute for Policy Interaction (IPI) in Malawi. He received a B.A. in political science at Saint Xavier College in Mumbai,India in 1975.

Career

Vice president of the country's chamber of commerce and industry, chairman of DEMAT, the Development of Malawian Traders' Trust, and also founding director of the Institute for Policy Interaction (IPI). He has worked at the Malawi Chamber of Commerce and Industry and has been a board member with Small Enterprise Development Organisation of Malawi and the Development of Malawi Traders Trust.

Political career

Hajat was a member of the executive in the United Democratic Front.

Activism

Hajat was the founding director of the Institute for Policy Interaction (IPI) and was the founder of Transparency International - Malawi Chapter. Hajat and

Malawi Democratic Party The Malawi Democratic Party is a political party in Malawi Malawi (; or aláwi Tumbuka: ''Malaŵi''), officially the Republic of Malawi, is a landlocked country in Southeastern Africa that was formerly known as Nyasaland. It is bord ...

(MDP) president

Kamlepo Kalua Kamlepo Kalua is a Malawian politician. From the Rumphi District, Kalua was the leader of the opposition Malawi Democratic Party from its inception in 1993 until 2012 when he joined people's party. He ran in the 1999 presidential election, where he ...

formed a Forum for the Defence of Democracy a pressure group on governance concerns under the Mutharika administration. Hajat was one of the main civil society organizers of the 20 July Ultimatum and 20 July nationwide economic protests. This forced him to go into hiding for a few days, but later he continued to organize the subsequent protests. On 2 September 2011, the offices of the IPI were burned whilst Hajat was traveling to Lilongwe.

Death

Hajat died on the early morning of 13 September 2021 while being airlifted to South Africa after having a heart attack. He was buried later that day at Westpark Cemetery in Johannesburg.

Accolades

*2012, Hajat was a finalist for the

Front Line Award for Human Rights Defenders at Risk Front Line Defenders, or The International Foundation for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, is an Irish-based human rights organisation founded in Dublin, Ireland in 2001 to protect those who work non-violently to uphold the human rights ...

, which ultimately went to Syrian blogger

Razan Ghazzawi Razan Ghazzawi ( ar, رزان غزاوي; born 1980) is a Syrian-American blogger, campaigner and activist and currently a PhD researcher at the University of Sussex. She has been highly involved in the events during the Syrian Civil War, and h ...

References

1955 births 2021 deaths Malawian activists Malawian businesspeople United Democratic Front (Malawi) politicians Malawian people of Indian descent Place of birth missing People from Blantyre Burials at Westpark Cemetery {{Malawi-bio-stub