* The President has been advised on several occasions that he needs well experienced and knowledgeable team of economic advisers
* The current crop of his advisors are doing him a big disservice and this has contributed to his current poor economic and political poor rating
* The President continues to make avoidable economic mistakes such as unnecessary over expenditures
By Duncan Mlanjira
Consumer Association of Malawi (CAMA) contends that the Malawi economy “has shown all elements of a failed State and with all characteristics of a junk state” due to several factors that include “poor leadership, global economic effects of the CoVID-19 and the Russian and Ukrainian war amongst others.
Advertisement
But the country’s leadership “continues to make avoidable economic mistakes such as unnecessary over expenditures which includes high levels of corruption and all these poor economic management failures continue to hurt the economy and consumers”.
CAMA’s Executive Director, John Kapito — in a statement issued on Thursday — thus implores of President Lazarus Chakwera to assemble bright minds of Malawians including those he hates to assist him finding lasting solutions to the economic challenges, such as:
* scarcity of forex and fuel;
* the highest unemployment rates;
* poor supply of electricity;
* the highest cost of living in living memory;
* high levels of corruption in all sectors of the economy; and
* lack of economic policies to grow the economy.
Even fuel tankers need topping up
“The President has been advised on several occasions that he needs well experienced and knowledgeable team of economic advisers,” he said. “The current crop of his advisors — whether they are his nephews, children or uncles — are doing him a big disservice and this has contributed to his current poor economic and political poor rating.
“The President must realize that lack of strong leadership and understanding of his role as a President at a time when the economy is underperforming and hurting a lot of innocent consumers is unexpected.”
He further said the economy is “completely bankrupt” and that its “revenue collection is at its lowest”, yet President Chakwera “is carelessly prioritizing activities that are of no value to the economy”.
He maintained that Chakwera makes “frequent unnecessary local and international travel accompanied by a large group of his party hand clappers and spending every kwacha and dollar on the market”, saying “this is also exacerbated by high levels of arrogance” on the part of the President’s administration “that has no feelings about the impacts of their actions on such actions”.
Advertisement
“The President has a traveling addiction and it is the only activity that he has shown to do with passion and dedication since he came into the office and unfortunately his hobby for traveling is happening at a time when he has just announced austerity measures.
“The President is failing to tame his own and operate under the same austerity measures, he is always on the road attending to matters that can be delegated and forgetting that his travels and extravagance are hurting innocent Malawians as they push our inflation and cost of living up.“
Kapito argues that Chakwera did not need to travel to the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) “at a time the economy is performing badly”, saying he was expected “to make good choices and judgment for the good of the people”.
UNGA
“The choice of the President at this difficult time to go to New York with a huge number of party sympathizers when the country has no forex reserves, has no fuel, has no electricity and has no maize [and that] the high cost of living is hurting Malawians shows the lack of understanding and sensitivity of the pain that consumers are going through.
“The President must understand the implications of any economic decisions that he makes and how such a decision impacts the economy and the poor people.
“How does the President expect both the multilateral or bilateral donors to extend any assistance to the country with such poor economic leadership and it is not surprising that both the IMF and other donors are unwilling to provide any financial support to Malawi.”
Advertisement
Kapito goes further to attack the trip to New York, saying: “When did UNGA become a source or platform of raising money for the country when all representatives of donor agencies are based in Lilongwe? Why should the President then travel all the way to New York.”
However, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement last week that Chakwera, apart of addressing the UNGA, he is also expected to hold 40 other engagements that include high-level meetings with world leaders and heads of various international institutions — “all geared towards mobilizing over a billion US dollars in resources for various sectors in Malawi”.
The Ministry said Chakwera, who will be in the US for 15 days — returning home on October 2 — is also expected to hold various engagements “to promote Malawi’s bilateral relations with the USA Government”.
The Ministry also emphasized that this will be the first UNGA that Chakwera will attend physically since he ascended to power in 2020 amidst COVID-19 pandemic, having participated in previous two meetings virtually.
But Kapito contends that Chakwera should have stayed home to stamp his leadership and find solutions to stop the long queues for fuel, scarcity of forex, power load shedding and the high cost of living.
Advertisement
Dzikoli atsogoleri alimaliza ndinthu because it seems kuti they don’t even care about the economic challenges that we are facing as a country.