State of the national distress
Malawi is in a state of national distress. There is little to celebrate and worth clapping hands. When President Chakwera delivered his State of the Nation Address (Sona) a few days ago, one wonders where the honourable parliamentarians on the government benches were getting the energy to cheer on a country that is experiencing daily distress.
However, the state of politics in Parliament, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) shenanigans, and the return of politics of violence and intimidation outside Parliament, are all indicators of the state of the national distress.
Deepening corruption is another signal that Malawi is in a state of distress. A recent report by global governance think-tank Transparency International reveals that corruption worsened in 2023 compared with the previous year. The reputation of corruption is growing. Integrity is a mere song that is weaved in flowery presidential speeches, yet it is nowhere in implementation. Fraud and other forms of public malfeasance have turned Malawi into a state of capture.
Corrupt businesspersons with serious allegations of corruption on their backs, are being set free. The triad involving politicians, businesses, and civil service is solidifying the grip on the public purse such that Malawi is bleeding from deep wounds cut in our public finances. The marks of a nation in distress are when the State machinery unashamedly arrests a whole Director General of Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) and dumps her in a mosquito-infested police cell at Namitete.
Signs of a nation in distress are all over the procurement process. Fertiliser mis-procurements top the list. To date, the bizarre move to pay a ‘butchery’ in return for fertiliser is a fairytale still too unbelievable. Yet the minister of agriculture who presided over this ‘heist’ was whisked away and never faced the long arm of the law.
As if no lessons had been learnt from this butchery scandal, government went on for deals with another dubious so-called fertiliser suppliers where Malawi was going to exchange our scarce legumes with bags of fertiliser. I mean, it was as if here in Malawi we eat the fertiliser itself. Thanks to public outcry and pressure from civil society and media, the bad deal was terminated where current minister of agriculture changed tune and disowned the process.
The state of economy is also in distress. Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs will have to grapple with a huge fiscal burden. Expenditures are increasing at a galloping pace in the face of steadily diminishing revenue. Tax revenue cannot match rising public expenditures. Salaries for civil servants alone account for over 70 percent of the recurrent budget. The state of budget distress is more visible as the fiscal plan is saddled with huge sums for compensations to lost court cases, and refunds to businesses. Unpaid pensions and arrears are other sources of distress.
However, it is the debt burden that is highly distressful. Currently, total public debt has risen to crippling heights, with government owing foreign and domestic lenders over K14 trillion. Domestic debt is chocking the economy while crowding out the private sector. Businesses and individual entrepreneurs are subjected to astronomically high interest rates. Recently, the Reserve Bank of Malawi announced a hike in the policy rate from 24 percent to 26 percent. This signals more agony as commercial loans will become increasingly unaffordable.
The state of national distress has gripped Malawi as the cost-of-living skyrockets. Prices of commodities continue to rise with food inflation at 40 percent. A bag of maize is selling at K50 000. With the failure of maize crop in many parts, there is a looming hunger with close to 5 million people facing starvation. With attention now shifting to 2025 elections, the situations will only help to compound the poverty situation.
