Opposition rebukes govt on state of the economy

 Leader of Opposition Kondwani Nankhumwa yesterday attacked the Tonse Alliance administration over what he views as poor policies which have left the country’s socio-economic situation in chaos.

He said this in his concluding remarks of the three-week sitting of the National Assembly.

Amid cheering from the opposition benches, Nankhumwa said the country’s economy was in the intensive care unit (ICU), which in medical terms is a specialist hospital ward that treats critically ill patients.

“Last week, I heard President Lazarus Chakwera saying Malawi’s economy is doing fine, and that it is on the rise. Mr. President, you do not need to shout from a rooftop for people to come and see an economy which is on the rise. An economy on the rise is self-evident.

“At the moment, the Malawi economy is in ICU, and to say that Malawi is rising against all these economic hardships is an insult to Malawians. I, therefore, condemn the President’s statement in its entirety,” Nankhumwa said.

He cited rising maize and fertiliser prices as some of the key indicators of the tough economic times facing the nation.

Nankhumwa warned that the Affordable Inputs Programme (AIP) reforms, which government plans to initiate, will worsen the hunger situation.

He further condemned the government for what he sees as failure to create employment opportunities for the youth as it promised in the build-up to the 2020 fresh presidential election.

But Leader of the House Richard Chimwendo Banda hit back at the opposition, saying the government is rolling out several projects, some of which were abandoned by the DPP-led administration.

He accused the opposition of not “having eyes to see the achievements of the Tonse Alliance government”.

Earlier in the day, Parliament approved the Malawi Schools of Government which seeks to establish the Malawi School of Government through a merger of the Malawi Institute of Management (MIM) and Staff Development Institute (SDI).

The House, however, referred a Protected Flag, Emblems and Names (Amendment) Bill to the Parliamentary Committee on Legal Affairs for further scrutiny.

The principal objective of that Bill is to descriminalise sedition-related offences