Former president Joyce Banda yesterday launched a People’s Party (PP) manifesto for the September 16 General Election with a flurry of promises, including trimming allocations to State Residences and senior public officers.
During the indoor launch at Crossroads Hotel in Lilongwe, she also announced that a PP administration will introduce free secondary school education, but she did not state how much it would cost and where in the tight fiscal space she would get the money to pay for it.
Banda, who is the party’s president and led the country from April 2012 to May 2014 when she ascended to the presidency in line with constitutional order after president Bingu wa Mutharika’s death, said areas of immediate concern for the party include the need to stop “unnecessary expenditure” allocations to State Residences, review of ministerial and senior government officers’ entitlements and other expenditures that can wait to support critical national expenses.
She said the savings that would accrue could be invested in the hunger response, with projections based on official statistics indicating that by September more Malawians will face acute hunger.
Said Banda: “As State President in 2012, I reduced my salary by 30 percent, reduced the fleet of vehicles assigned to a Cabinet minister as well as instituted other fiscal measures that controlled government expenditure.
“It is also very critical for leaders to not only share in peoples’ economic pain, but lead by example to stop wanton expenditures. I have done it before, and I shall do it again for the benefit of Malawians.”
The PP leader also promised to fix what she called the artificial value of the kwacha, which she said works to the disadvantage of the economy, but fell short of specifying how she will achieve that in an economy reeling from a three to one import-export imbalance and where the black market, exploiting low forex supply in authorized dealer banks, dictates the pace even as monetary authorities try to manage official currency movements.
On average, Malawi imports just over $3 billion against $1 billion in exports, a trade imbalance that persistently leaves structural deficits in the current account, resulting in foreign currency shortages that crush the local currency, increase prices and hike the cost of living.
“The prevailing artificial value of the kwacha is a huge disadvantage to consumers, our farmers and businesspeople, leading to financial loss for the farmers, and huge operational costs for businesses with low return on investment,” said Banda.
Commenting on the PP’s pledge to introduce free secondary school education, quality education advocate and National Advocacy Platform (NAP) chairperson Benedicto Kondowe described the promise as bold, but too fiscally ambitious.
He said given Malawi’s current fiscal constraints, infrastructural gaps and teacher shortages, such a plan could be disastrous without a clear funding model.
Said Kondowe: “While free secondary education could significantly improve access and reduce dropout rates, its practicality is questionable without a clear funding model, expansion of classrooms, recruitment and training of teachers, and provision of learning materials.
“Past experiences with free primary education highlight the risk of overcrowding and declining quality if implementation is not well-planned.”
The former governing party has indicated that it will also focus on ensuring that Malawi must have a two-crop-a-year programme and maximise on irrigation farming.
These are among the 17 pillars on which the PP intends to run affairs of government if voted into power come September.
Kondowe described the manifesto promises in general as “easier said than done”.
Going forward, he said it would be prudent to revive and deepen the public sector reforms once championed by former Vice-President the late Saulos Chilima to improve public service delivery.
After the launch in Lilongwe yesterday, PP plans to launch its campaign in Zomba on Saturday.
Repeatedly, Banda and director of ceremonies Timothy Sandram justified their indoor launch of their party’s manifesto, saying it was meant to allow people to easily follow it.
Malawi Congress Party launched its manifesto and campaign on Saturday at Bingu National Stadium in Lilongwe.
