Chakwera explains ministers’ swap

President Lazarus Chakwera says he appointed Kasungu South legislator Simplex Chithyola Banda as new Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs to lead reconfiguring of public spending towards productive and most economic sectors.

The President said this in Nkhudzi Bay, Mangochi yesterday when he commissioned the Southern Region Water Board (SRWB) Mangochi Town Water Supply Project.

This was the first time he publicly commented on the swapping of ministerial roles between Chithyola Banda and Sosten Gwengwe who is now Minister of Industry and Trade.

Said Chakwera: “I have appointed honourable Simplex Chithyola as the new Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs to implement the public spending reconfiguration exercise needed to maximise our limited resources.”

He said programmes accustomed to spending public money without any productive end will now need to find other sources of funding.

The President said it was high time Malawians accepted “the painful fact that we only have enough resources” to spend on boosting productivity and increasing people’s capacity of generating revenue.

Nevertheless, Chakwera said historically the country has been struggling to repay its debts because most of the funds it has been borrowing were spent on consumption than production.

He said: “Without producing and producing, we will end up consuming and consuming. And because we will have to continue consuming, we will end up borrowing and borrowing. And because we are borrowing, borrowing and borrowing, we end up continuously as slaves,”

He touted the K21 billion Mangochi Town Water Project funded by the Kuwait Fund for Economic Development through SRWB as a model of money well spent.

The project is expected to benefit over 92 000 households around Nkhuzi Bay via Mtakataka Turn-off, Makawa area, Maldeco all the way to Mpondasi in the district.

SRWB board chairperson Brown Mpinganjira said the project was a game-changer to the people of Mangochi as it would increase the capacity of implementing the free-water connection programme in the district.

“Through the project, we will be able to connect people designed to benefit from free water supply connection under SRWB’s free water supply connection to vulnerable people we are implementing,” he said.

Traditional Authority Nankumba said the potable water is a relief to the people of Mangochi and it will help in the fight against cholera.

“Our people have had difficulties to access potable water as they drew it from unprotected areas. Now, the coming in of the project is a solution to the challenges including waterborne diseases such as cholera,” he said.

Mangochi District Hospital official Innocent Lanjesi, speaking on behalf of the director of health and social services, said the project is a milestone towards the reduction of cholera outbreak.

The lakeshore district recorded 8 369 cases and 123 deaths since the onset of the outbreak in March 2022.

 “This was due to people’s consumption of unsafe water. Now, that we have potable water, lives have been saved,” he said

Kuwait Fund for Economic Development deputy director of operations Abdullah Aimussaibeeh reiterated that the extension of Mangochi Potable Water Supply would provide safe water which is one of the organisation’s objectives.

A Mangochi resident, William Biliwili from Nkhudzi-Bay thanked SRWB for the project that will provide them with clean water.

“Despite having a lake nearby, we have been struggling to get safe and clean water. We used to drink water from the boreholes and unclean environment,” he said.

The project was earmarked to run from 2021 to 2022, but court battles between civil society organisations (CSOs) and residents affected the duration.

The CSOs argued that the project would affect wildlife, but the residents wanted it to proceed.