Malawians feel hopeless—PAC

Public Affairs Committee (PAC) has told President Lazarus Chakwera to be decisive and sensitive to finding solutions to ease the suffering of Malawians who feel hopeless and perceive the governing Tonse Alliance as clueless.

In a statement released after meeting the President for the first time this year at Kamuzu Palace in Lilongwe yesterday, the quasi-reigious grouping’s chairperson Monsignor Patrick Thawale said Chakwera’s indecisiveness and slowness to act on crucial issues “remains a great enemy” to his leadership legacy.

He mentioned the Chakwera administration’s penchant for domestic borrowing for consumption and international trips as well as Cabinet size and the entire size of the civil service, including “the unwarranted numbers” in the embassies as contributing factors to the current country’s economic malaise.

Said Thawale: “You may have been insensitive to the complaints and pieces of advice from stakeholders leading to the perception that the Tonse Alliance dministration seems to be clueless. You have no choice, but to act decisively on some recommendations made in order to jump start the economy.

“Malawians are crying out there. The poor are starving. The country is lacking message of hope on the current economic terrain. We cannot maintain the status quo or else we create room for civil strife.”

PAC has also urged the President to consider hiring a 15-member Cabinet with what it calls statecraft that can back him up to redeem the situation and reverse negative perceptions.

While commending the austerity measures the President unveiled two weeks ago in the aftermath of a 44 percent kwacha devaluation that has triggered reciprocal price increase, PAC further suggested that as one of the economic strategies, government should stop importation of non-essential commodities.

On corruption, PAC said it has noted selective justice and that some old cases are not being pursued, a development it said creates an impression that new cases had become more important than previous ones.

The grouping has since asked the President to improve the capacity of the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) in its various departments such as investigation, prosecution, civic education and outreach.

PAC further proposed an end to the Affordable Inputs Programme (AIP) and channel the resources to productive sectors, including mega farms and medium-scale productive farmers.

“We share the view, however, that the poor must be supported to ensure that there is food security. But with the current economic situation, bold decisions must be made to exit from the programme noting that the programme has been dented with corrupt practices,” reads part of the statement.

It further advised the President to work on building relationships with other parties in the Tonse Alliance, get away with presidential advisers and instead outsource and condemned him for faith-affiliated appointments.

In separate interviews, PAC spokesperson Bishop Gilford Matonga and presidential press secretary Anthony Kasunda described the meeting as cordial.

Kasunda did not give more details, only saying: “It is true that the meeting between PAC and His Excellency the President took place and it was a very cordial meeting.”

On the other hand, Matonga said PAC has not given the President a deadline to act on the recommendations made.

“We have not given the President any deadline as the discussions are ongoing. He was positive and we are confident that he will act on the recommendations. We are planning for an all-inclusive meeting where some of these issues will also be discussed,” he said.

This is the fifth meeting between PAC and Chakwera since he took office in June 2020 following his triumph in the court-sanctioned Fresh Presidential Election. Two meetings were held in 2020 and one each in 2021 and 2022.

Prior to the Tuesday meeting, the grouping had last met Chakwera in January 2022 when it raised several governance concerns.

During the meeting, PAC gave the President a 90-day ultimatum to reshuffle his Cabinet and dismiss ministers suspected of involvement in corruption, among others.

In June this year, PAC expressed interest to meet the President again, citing the deteriorating living conditions of Malawians due to harsh economic conditions, poor infrastructure and stagnating fight on corruption.

Malawi is reeling under debt stress with Ministry of Finance and EconomicAaffairs data showing total public debt stock as of December 2022 at about K14.7 trillion or 76 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) in local currency value.

Of the total debt stock, $4 billion (K6.8 trillion) is external debt while $4.69 billion (K7.9 trillion) is domestic debt.