Govt faults APM criticism of economy

Government has said common sense would say that an institution that messed up the economy of the country could not be engaged on issues of how to develop a sound economy.

Minister of Information and Digitisation Gospel Kazako was reacting to Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) leader Peter Mutharika, who accused the Tonse A l l iance administration of running down the country ’ s economy.

Mutharika, who governed Malawi from 2014 to June 2020, said at a news conference in Mangochi on Friday that President Lazarus Chakwera and his Tonse Alliance have destroyed all foundations his administration put in place.

He further said the President has plunged the country into fuel crisis, forex shortages, sky-rocketing food prices and messed up Affordable Inputs Programme (AIP) and Admarc.

But Kazako, who is also official government spoke s p e r s o n , s a i d yesterday the Chakwera administration was clearing the economic mess the previous DPP government left.

He said: “On claims that we have failed Malawians, Malawians have suffered for a very long time, including the time he was president. This country has been economically down to the extent that the citizens had to lower their standards in order to submit. We still see poverty all over.

“Various reports have confirmed Malawians have been poor for many years, including the years DPP was in government. We hope they are not living in the illusion of the Singapore they promised Malawians.”

Kazako said low quality logic indicates that one cannot solve a problem by involving the same people that created it in the first place.

He said the government cannot solve problems in this country with the same gang that destroyed this country.

The former president also blasted the Tonse Alliance for failing Malawians by failing to uplift their lives economically.

Answering questions on reports that the Anti- Corruption Bureau may arrest and prosecute him, his wife Gertrude and son Tadikira over abuse of his Tpin when he was president, he said: “I do not understand it because Malawi Revenue Authority and the bureau already interviewed me on the issue here in my house.”