Malawi economy to decline further, says opposition: MCP attack ‘State sponsored corruption’

Opposition political parties in Malawi parliament have torn apart Finance, Economic Planning and Development minister Goodall Gondwe’s s Mid-Year Budget Review Statement, showing pessimism the economy will rebound any time soon.

Gondwe told Parliament last Friday that Treasury has revised downwards the current budget by K20 billion due to failure by donors to meet certain pledges.

Reacting on Monday, main opposition Malawi Congress Party (MCP) spokesperson on finance Kusamba Dzonzi also attacked the government for what he described as state sponsored corruption and the Finance minister’s failure to address the fresh issue of ‘Maizegate’ – misprocurement of maize.

“Our economy is withering and shrinking at an alarming rate,” said Kusamba Dzonzi.

He dismissed the assertion by Gondwe that the economy is bound to rebound this year, describing it as a “total lie” and playing with people’s lives.

Dzonzi said the “sugar-coating” of his statement on the economy was far from the truth of the real economy on the ground, saying the economy is bound to decline further.

He asked the government to be in control and prevent further thefts of public money.

The MCP spokesman on finance also said with the decline of tobacco sales, the economy is expected to decline further.

Kusamba Dzonzi also said donors are reluctant to pump in money through the budgetary support because they have no trust in government following many cases of abuse of public money.

“No donor can trust this [DPP] government because of its corrupt way of governing,” he said.

He warned time is up for corrupt politicians and civil servants as parliament will now be instituting its own inquiries when it suspects abuse of public money and corruption.

“We are faced with corruption because this government lacks the will to fight corruption. We have become a nation that celebrates mediocrity,” he said.

Kusamba Dzonzi then asked the government to investigate the fires thouroughly, saying the government must do so before State House, Reserve Bank of Malawi or parliament is up on fire.

He wondered why since the fire has been gutting public and private property, no one has been arrested yet.

Spokesperson for Peoples Party (PP), Ralph Jooma concurred with the MCP spokesperson, saying the economy will continue to decline this year contrary to the assurances by Gondwe. Chairperson of Budget and Finnce Rhino Chiphiko said balance of payment remains precarious.

“There is marginal depreciation of the kwacha…marginal depreciation of inflation. The decline has not benefitted ordinary people but banks only,” he said.

He also said the government refused to engage Illovo for winter cropping of maize, saying the country would have got half of what the government wanted to import from Zambia. Admarc wanted to import 100000 metric tonnes of maize but the contract was canceled due to come contractual challenges.

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