Chakwera brands APM hypocrite
Leader of opposition in Parliament Lazarus Chakwera has described President Peter Mutharika as a hypocrite and that his government is trying to divert the attention of Malawians from real issues.
Chakwera, addressing a news conference in Lilongwe on Monday where he reacted to the salary increments announced by Minister of Finance, Economic Planning and Development Goodall Gondwe, observed that in August this year Mutharika rejected a 600 percent proposed salary increment for Cabinet ministers and called it unethical.
Said Chakwera: “Then in September [2014] he approved [the increments], then pretended to suspend his own decision in December. This makes him a hypocrite whose government is run by distractions and deceptions, not leadership.
“So if the President has the power to reject or approve salary increases for himself and government ministers, how is it that on August 25 he denounced salary increases proposed by his own office as unethical and then within six weeks approved the salary increases he himself finds unethical?
“To make the deception worse, the same President who has approved what he himself finds unethical has now elected to suspend receiving the 80 percent increase in his salary until the economy improves.”
According to Chakwera, there are so many critical issues facing Malawians and the President has taken a blind eye.
Added Chakwera: “Whether the problem is the high unemployment among our youth, or the vote of no confidence from our development partners, or the salary delays for civil servants and teachers which he promised would never happen under his presidency, or the salary demands by the Judiciary whom his government negotiates with in private and demonises in public, or the water supply problems in our major cities, or the rising cost of living triggered by our currency’s depreciation, or the lack of progress on Cashgate cases.
“Malawians are right to be angry that their President neither acknowledges their problems nor addresses them in a decisive and timely fashion.
“Instead of solving the salary problems of teachers, civil servants and Judiciary staff within the rule of law, the President’s government chooses to distract Malawians with the revelation that effective from October 1, salaries for MPs, Cabinet ministers, leader of opposition, Vice-President and the President himself were increased by 376 percent, 168 percent and 80 percent respectively. If this is not intended to distract and deceive us, then why are MPs and myself only finding out about these increases through the media?”
Chakwera has since asked the President to suspend all proposed pay hikes saying it is the Malawian who is suffering as a result of such inconsiderate hikes.
“Personally, I do not care whether I am paid very little or nothing at all. But we are not talking about Chakwera, but an office that the Bingu [wa Mutharika] administration had demoted and which they now wanted to normalise,” he said
Gondwe has since said that none of the increments will be paid out to anybody until the economy improves.
Minister of Information, Tourism and Culture Kondwani Nankhumwa on Fridayjustified the salary hikes, saying they were in line with the 2014/15 national budget.
He said: “When presenting the budget, government had projections and this is exactly why the salaries have been hiked.”
If you did not know the real character of Peter Mathanyula Muntharika then you do not need to look any further, a hypocrite that’s exactly what he is……..
Malawi will reap the seeds of voting on regional lines instead of voting for people with substance. There are so many people in the world who are highly educated like APM but who lacks wisdom. Its only people who have wisdom like Mandela who makes good leaders, unfortunately APM has shown time and time again that he lacks even basic common sense.
He failed to resolve the university saga when he was minister of education, he screwed up at the ministry of foreign affairs which saw the British high commissioner being expelled. He even failed to resolve a family issue between Callista and her step daughters after Bingu passed and yet Southerners voted for him just because he is a fellow southern regardless of his inability to lead.
Well I fear for my beloved country as there is more to come so long as this Mulakho zealot is in power, fellow Malawians embrace for impact as this country is gonna clash any moment, you have been warned.
Dr Chakwera, your spokesperson, Jessie Kabwira has welcomed the salary increments. How do we trust that you are just trying to make headlines? That you are just a different breed of hypocrites
Let those who have common sense decide whether what Chakwera is saying is making sense or not, and stop diverting peoples attention from the real issue here.
Kabwira was right, everybody in Malawi starting with the president himself, MPs to the most lowly paid civil servant needs a salary increment to cope with the high cost of living that every Malawian is experiencing.
The problem here is that DPP is playing politics to divert peoples attention from the ongoing strikes in govt, those who have a human brain with basic common sense should be able to figure that out quite easily.
The main problem we have in Malawi is that we have so many brutes who are easily manipulated by these crooks masquerading as politicians, keep your eyes open.
This hypocrite is just trying to get headlines! Why are you backtracking now, iwe Chakwera?