Chakwera’s big Sona headache

President Lazarus Chakwera has a daunting task on Friday when he opens the 50th Session of Parliament to explain to Malawians his administration’s efforts to, among some key areas, fix the economy, fight corruption and ensure food security.

His State of the Nation Address (Sona) comes at a time Transparency International (TI), governance, economic and social commentators have all poorly rated his government’s performance in fighting corruption, fixing the economy and  implementing  the Affordable Inputs Programme (AIP).

The commentators say contrary to the optimism, promises and hope government has performed dismally on governance and food security while the economy has deteriorated in all spheres of life.

In his last Sona in February 2022 when opening of the Fifth Meeting of the 49th Session of Parliament, titled Fixing the System to Deliver Long-Term Priorities and Defuse Short-Term Pressure, Chakwera spoke passionately about his government’s commitment to fight corruption.

He emphasised the need for governance institutions such as the Office of the Attorney General, Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) and the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) to work together if the fight against corruption is to be won.

Centre for Social Accountability and Transparency executive director Willy Kambwandira in an interview said Malawians expect Parliament to rise to its noble oversight duty and demand answers from Chakwera on where he is taking the country to.

He cited the alleged intimidation and harassment of ACB director general Martha Chizuma as one of the items that needs to feature highly in the Sona.

Said Kambwandira: “We feel the President is taking Malawians for granted; there is just a lot of hypocrisy and irresponsibility. We expect him to come out openly and explain to Malawians where he thinks he is taking us to on the fight against corruption.”

Human Rights Defenders Coalition national chairperson Gift Trapence also echoed Kambwandira’s sentiments, saying there is need for real commitment and move from rhetoric to action.

The Afrobarometer results also showed that just 15 percent of Malawians approve of the Tonse Alliance administration’s efforts to reduce poverty, adding that the rating is the worst in the past 20 years under six administrations.

Chakwera is also expected to explain the teething problems that have rocked implementation of the 2022/2023 AIP in this growing season.

According to preliminary findings of an investigation by the office of the Ombudsman, the prgramme has not optimally delivered where the government’s obligations is concerned as well as in terms of the expectations of the beneficiaries.

The findings show that implementation of the AIP demonstrated poor planning as well as low levels of preparedness and inefficiencies in the supply chain management and actual delivery.

On the economic front Chakwera’s third Sona will come amid deepening macro-economic instabilities which have resulted in the worsening of all macro-economic indicators during the year.

This will be a big contrast to what he stated in the Sona last year when he reported that the economy is recovering steadily owing to numerous recovery policy measures, including safety nets his administration is implementing to ensure citizens enjoy a better life.

In his second Sona presented on February 3 2022, Chakwera attributed the steady recovery of the economy to numerous recovery policy measures including safety nets his administration was implementing to ensure citizens enjoyed a better life.

The President had projected the 2022 economy to grow by 4.1 percent up from three percent in 2021 on account of economic recovery measures that were being implemented by government as contained in the Socio-Economic Recovery Plan and agriculture sector growth.

At the time of the address, gross official reserves in December 2021 covered only 1.72 months of imports compared to December 2020’s import cover of 2.75 months while the kwacha was trading at around K830 against the United States dollar.

The President had also projected the annual average inflation to jump from 8.6 percent in 2020 to 9.3 percent in 2021 but with a moderate month-on-month inflation, especially when harvesting season sets in, thereby reducing pressure on inflation dynamics.

However, government’s 2022 economic growth projection has been revised down to 1.7 percent from the 4.1 percent projected earlier.

The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank have also revised their forecasts downward to 0.9 percent from 2.7 percent and 2.1 percent, respectively.

Economics Association of Malawi executive director Frank Chikuta earlier said to attain growth figures as the President projected in his Sona depends on what government is going to do.

He said: “That is in terms of economic policy measures because reasonable growth figures are attainable, depending on policies introduced to attain such projections.”

In an interview, former Reserve Bank governor and development economist Dalitso Kabambe observed that contrary to the optimism, promises and hope of the last Sona, the economy has experienced deterioration in all spheres of life.

“Whatever we were promised would be fixed has either broken further or completely disintegrated. Inflation has risen. Interest rates are up. Import cover has dwindled. Forex reserves have been wiped out.

“The kwacha has buckled on its knees. Disposable incomes have been eroded. We have experienced a chaotic AIP and for the first time in the history of Malawi, a bag of fertilisers hovers at K75 000,” he said.