Chakwera’s statement in full

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Earlier today I briefed Members of the Press, to put to rest propaganda and brazen innuendoes being propagated by people who have no moral ground to throw stones.

My Statement, in full, is now on my website and as below is a summary.

“I believe in servant leadership, and under my presidency, the Head of State would have no power to decide, approve, reject, or suspend his own salary, or that of the judiciary, or that of parliament, or that of his own ministers, because that is a clear conflict of interest that destroys democracy, encourages the greed we are seeing today, and allows a president to pay lip-service to austerity measures by suspending his pay when he is going to demand it later and when he has foreign bank accounts to live on that Malawians know nothing about.

If that is the kind of president Malawians want, I am not that kind of President. In fact, if this is the way this administration wants to run its affairs, they might as well resign.

In summary we demand that:

i. Government institutions must stop directly requesting money from parastatals with obvious cashgate intentions

ii. BEAM, NIB and Mulhako wa Ahlomwe should refund Aids money to NAC immediately without negotiations.

iii. Abuse of funds must be investigated and cases be brought to book without partisan considerations.

And we recommend that:

i. Government concentrates on resolving issues affecting the nation and never attempt to divert attention of Malawians through staged media reporting.

ii. Government should offer civil servants reasonable pay hike as done for the President, Vice President, Ministers, Deputy Ministers and Members of Parliament.

iii. DPP must drop a careless approach to running government. Malawians are tired of having administrations in democratic era that are obsessed with amassing wealth on nepotistic and tribal lines.

iv. The President would have been in the know as to where we are now if ministry monthly reports as the Cabinet Ministers’ Workshop in Mangochi decided are coming in.

Lastly, to those Malawians who have expressed anger at me for the 168% salary increase that some in the media accuse me of accepting, I applaud your concern.

What I do not applaud however is your eagerness to believe whatever is reported by the same government and media who exchange secret envelopes at night.

Be on your guard, for these are treacherous times.

May the Almighty bless our Nation Malawi