President Lazarus Chakwera is tomorrow set to deliver his final State of the Nation Address (Sona) in his first term with stakeholders saying they expect to hear concrete plans on how he will improve people’s lives.
In separate interviews, representatives of Public Affairs Committee (PAC), Consumers Association of Malawi (Cama) and women entrepreneurs gave a mixed rating to the President’s previous Sonas and hoped that this time around he will deliver on most promises outlined.
PAC spokesperson Bishop Gilford Matonga said their expectation from the next Sona is that the President will outline how his administration plans to deal with the poor economy in the remaining months to the September 16 2025 General Election.
He said: “It will be interesting to know what the President will be doing between now up to election time. The time is too short and it is very difficult for the President to make a lot of promises considering the time from now to election time in September.”
Matonga said PAC also expects to hear a strong commitment from the government on ensuring free and fair elections.
He further said they consider Chakwera as a servant leader, but they have noted shortfalls in some areas of his ‘Hi5’ agenda, notably in terms of the rule of law and uniting Malawians.
“The country is politically polarised. Political violence has taken place without solid action, a case of a divided nation according to PAC,” he observed.
On her part, Malawi Union of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) president Barbara Banda said the harsh business environment has equally affected SMEs and the union expects to hear concrete steps that government will take to protect SMEs.
She said: “Inequality between men and women still exists, especially when it comes to business opportunities. We expect the President to provide concrete examples of how many women have truly been empowered, how many benefitted from public loan programmes, and how many have access to financing as a result of policies implemented in the past four years.”
In a separate interview, Cama executive director John Kapito said in their perspective the President has not translated in terms of meaningfully improving the welfare of Malawians.
But he refused to elaborate, saying Cama was preparing a press release on a similar matter.
Pan-African pollster and research agency Afrobarometer reports have suggested that corruption remains rife with a general perception that the Anti-Corruption Bureau is not as independent as the President promised.
The Judiciary, on the other hand, is riddled with corruption allegations just like the Executive and the Legislature, raising questions on the administration’s effectiveness in fighting corruption.
The President will tomorrow inaugurate the 51st Session of Parliament, which is a Budget Meeting to deliberate on the 2025/26 financial blueprint that will come into effect on April 1, five months before Malawi goes to the September 16 General Election.
In his maiden Sona delivered on September 4 2020, Chakwera set the tone for the agenda of his administration over five years. The Friday address is, therefore, worth noting as it is probably his last Sona in his first term of office.
National Statistical Office data indicates that in 2020, the country’s annual inflation was at 8.6 percent, but as of December 2024 it increased to an average of 32 percent, which indicates that the economy and indeed the state of citizens have deteriorated although the period was also characterized by devastating natural disasters and external shocks such as lingering effects of Covid-19, which were compounded by Cyclone Idai in 2019, Tropical Storm Anna and Cyclone Gombe in 2022 as well as Cyclone Freddy in 2023.
