Transformation Alliance wants report on APM’s US trip
The Transformation Alliance (TA) has asked President Peter Mutharika to provide a “comprehensive” report on why he kept Malawians in the dark on some engagements he had at the 71st United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).
The UNGA, which took place in New York, United States of America (USA), ended on September 23, but Mutharika only returned home on October 16.
However, when asked about Mutharika’s whereabouts, government insisted he was still carrying out official duties which he failed to do during the assembly.
Addressing journalists in Blantyre yesterday in the company of TA interim chairperson Moses Kunkuyu and interim administrative secretary Charles Mwambyale, TA spokesperson Leonard Chimbanga said the alliance would like to know if any of the meetings Mutharika had critically examined the challenges rocking Malawi’s health system.
“What really happened? Does he realise that he must be accountable to Malawians who gave him a vote on trust? Or is it the public broadcaster MBC that sabotaged him? Or his information handlers lied to the nation?
“As TA, we refuse to speculate on crucial issues of national interest, hence our call for the President to urgently address the nation. It is naive for the President and indeed government officials to think they can go away with amplified lies. Such thinking is backward, undemocratic and archaic,” said Chimbanga.
He also said, as UNFPA youth ambassador, Mutharika should know that the country’s youths are optimistic that he has so much for them from the UNGA.
On the persistent electricity blackouts, Chimbanga said TA finds Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (Escom’s) explanations “senseless”.
Malawians are currently experiencing one of the worst load shedding schedules as Escom is rationing power to industries and homes.
TA was formed in August this year with a voice that Malawi urgently needs a complete overhaul of its political system to resolve prevailing political and socioeconomic challenges.
Its interim chairperson Kunkuyu was the first Cabinet minister to be appointed by former president Joyce Banda when she assumed power in April 2012 after the death of president Bingu wa Mutharika.
