President Lazarus Chakwera will appear in Parliament next on February 26 to answer questions from members of Parliament (MPs) on the State of the Nation Address (Sona) he delivered last Friday.
Speaker of Parliament Catherine Gotani Hara told the National Assembly yesterday that members of Parliament (MPs) are required to present their questions to the President by close of business on today.
Section 89 (4) of the Constitution provides that the President shall be called to Parliament to answer questions at such times as may be prescribed by the Standing Orders of Parliament or on a motion of the National Assembly.
Under Standing Order 70 (2), the President is called to Parliament either when (a) written notice of five questions or more directed to him/her have been received by the Speaker and submitted to the Office of President and Cabinet, and; 70 (b) “when a motion is moved and resolved in the affirmative by a majority of all the Members of the Assembly, to call the President to come and answer questions on a specific matter clearly stated in the motion”.
Chakwera is the second Head of State in the country after former president Bakili Muluzi to appear before Parliament to answer questions since 1994.
Meanwhile, Leader of Opposition in Parliament George Chaponda and leader of United Democratic Front (UDF) in Parliament Ned Poya yesterday officially responded to the Sona.
In his response, Chaponda said the President’s address titled ‘Taking development forward’ was full of lies and described it as misleading to Malawians who are now facing tough times due to the soaring cost of living.
He said: “The address did not reflect the truth because development means people experience happiness when enjoying freedom, but Malawians are not happy now compared to the time Chakwera took over leadership in 2020.
“For instance, in 2020 inflation was nine percent, but now is 33 percent, interest rates were 12 percent but now they are at 35 percent, fertiliser price was K17 000 but now it is K120 000, maize price was K10 000 but now it is K100 000 in some cases.”
Both Chaponda and Poya highlighted that apart from the Sona’s failure to articulate government measures to deal with the current worsening economic situation, some projects that it indicated were done do not exist.
In an interview, Ntcheu Central MP Albert Mbawala (Malawi Congress Party-MCP), who moved the motion to adopt the Sona, described the Phalombe example indicating that security officers’ houses were built when there were none as a human error by those that typed the Sona.
He said: “If you go to Phalombe you will find that the foundation for the houses were made and it was not intentional for the President to come here and lie but it is what we call typo error by those doing the typing. It seems those doing the typing were just doing copy and paste to have written ‘done’.”
In a separate interview, Leader of the House Richard Chimwendo Banda said the opposition Sona response lacked alternatives and solutions hence describing it as empty.
The budget meeting which was opened by President Chakwera on Friday 14 February 2025, is expected to run up to 11 April 2025.
