Tembo says Malawi should not accuse foreign countries for its economic mess
Malawi Congress Party (MCP) president John Tembo has said President Bingu wa Mutharika government should not accuse foreign countries on the crippling foreign currency and fuel shortages.
The problems have prompted the government to ban all foreign trips by public officials and affected Mutharika’s trip to attend Commonwealth Heads of government meeting in Trinidad and Tobago.
“Where has foreign exchange gone? Let people know,” said the veteran politician.
“But don’t accuse foreign countries as being responsible for the mess we are in today in Malawi,” said Tembo.
Malawi government blames Mozambique as being esponsible for the country’s fuel woes, claiming that fuel has been held up because of congestion in the ports of Nacala and Beira. The claim was strongly denied by Mozambique authorities.
Tembo in remarks made on Capital Radio said the ban of all foreign trips by government officials is not going to help save the much needed foreign exchange.
“It is not. Because the amount of money spent by civil servants on trips is not the major problem. But the major problems that Malawi has, are not caused by civil servants, whether in their trips, allowances and so on,” he said.
“Yes it’s good to reduce expenditure, control expenditure but to use that as main reason, no!”
Tembo questioned President Mutharika for presidential jet purchase at the tune of about US$15.9million.
“Where did he get the money to buy the plane which he has?” wondered the MCP president.
“I don’t remember parliament passing the budget and money which was used to purchase the presidential jet. Because an item like that comes to parliament as a specific item for the whole country to take pride in for a Head of State to have a new jet.
“After all, I have dealt with purchase of plane before, both as minister of finance and chairman of Air Malawi. We had to bring to parliament specific items for approval.”
He said: “For instance, Kwacha that plane we are using now, I negotiated for its purchase myself and parliament had to pass authorization bill for the loan which was used to buy that plane.
“Who can tell me now that you can hide in the budget a major item as a purchase of a plane?”
Tembo called on government o be democratic, transparent and be open to its own citizens.
I totally agree with you Chief Justice Kamphata, some people criticise blindly, we are supposed to help in building blocks on this blog, there are people out there who needs your ideas here to assist them in making an informed decision. Much as people hate Tembo for his past influences but this article is talking sense. even in your house you should be able to ask a wife how else would you buy chicken when the only tambala you had left the wife was sufficient for matemba, so since the budget is the driving factor for our country one needs to explain why he decided to buy a Jet, Hummers, Lending Zim the $$$$$ without the Voters approval thru the Paliament. Tembo you are right, technically Tembo still has energy to oppose or direct Bingu when he is going wrong is still he is alive, his only problems of opposing just to punish someone due to vote majority are the ones earning him bad CV now otherwise if he can maintain this spirit from now I see people respecting him again. Malawians lets face the fact that in Democratic setup no country can prosper without strong opposition hence we need to support opposition side so that they have energy to oppose constructively for your good and mine too. Tembo tiye naye Binguyu watiwonelela too much, he has to explain he has strungled Malawi financially atiuze bwino bwino.
o tembo!!! first umachotsa chimtengo cha m’maso mwako usanachotse kachitsotso m’maso mwa mzako. there was an allegation that you mismanaged alot of funds in your MCP, upto now you have not explain. everyone who tries to seek clarification is always fired. so mwawona kuti za anzanu ndi zosafuta. this is the sign that you are failing to accept that Hon. Kayembe is leader of opposition. i am looking forward to a day when i will see Otembo sitting on second bench in the house, ha ha ha hah hah !!!!!!!!
Wina alira
Who said Bingu is accusing foreign countries?
Guys whatever u talk on JZU,he is the only true and mature politician in Malawi.There was no vote in August house on the purchasing of PRESIDENTIAL JET although Goodall “Gondwi” said that the money from the disposed “Kamuzu” Jet was kept in a!!!!!!account.He has to tell us where he got the forex.
A chief inu ndiye anzeru chingerezi chake chimenechi? anthu enanu mmalo moikira ndemanga pa zomwe zalembedwa, mungolemba chamba cheni cheni!!!
Zimene wanena jzu aliyense angathe kunena – mkhalamba imeneyi isiye ndale basi – kodi ifuna ikadzalamulira idzatani?
I agree with baba Tembo, this government is eroding faster than it came in. At the end of it all, considering all these problems, these last 5 years of the once heroic Bingu may prove to be worse than the 10 years of Dr. Muluzi. I now see that it was very bad to give Bingu a majority in parliament. He has become very careless with his speeches. Oh how I wish he observes Obama – how he speaks and his wisdom.
Tembo should not be allowed to start his politics of hate from the peripheral. He hides under the smoke screen of fighting for people, when he is seeking his own agendas.
Your time is up, the opposition wants to be more contructive than your accusations that only feed into your ego rather than helping Malawians. Issues that are crucial need that the opposition and the government should work together to find solutions to such problems facing Malalwians.
You have no shame to have the caurage to come out and speak like that after all the opposition is in minority because of people like John Tembo for people do not want you.
This man is still pursuing his ambition for 2014. Kapume nkhalamba yogwa nkumina iwe. Amachita kugwirilatu munithu kuti a kwere masteps a nyumba yake.
Now this should be the [grown-up] politics advocated in MW and not speculative nonsense.
Tembo should, thus, point out which part of the economy he needs the explanations. This is because MW is not an Island to the global political economy- we are part of it.
Therefore, any economic woes on the international stage has consequences… Remember MW is a THIRD WORLD COUNTRY with reliance on agriculture [tobacco, maize, sugar] as major forex income products.
MW has no choice but to rely on the $ which has fallen in value, and could have been held back [recently] from being invested in African countries in order to stabilise first world economies!
Take this into perspective!
Young Politics, I know you are a Chinese, Don’t talk more here. You don’t know Malwi. Only Cjinese use The Third World.
Well said Chief Justice. Government, I mean Bingu should tell us the truth about the economic woes the country is facing. As an economic engineer, he can do better than the lame excuses he is giving us. First he blamed unpatriotic Malawians, then forex bureaus operators, now it is foreign companies. Which is which? It appears to me that government is hiding the real cause of this problem. Chief, the president has, just yesterday, threatened that he is going to close companies he thinks are involved in externalising foreign currency. If indeed companies are the ones that have caused this misery then we are not safe. Do we have control mechanisms at the Reserve Bank of Malawi? Even in our families we have control mechanisms whereby we monitor our income and decide to cut on certain expenditures before we face a crisis. Didn’t our economists at the Reserve Bank of Malawi or wherever see the problem coming? Why did they continue to give the alleged companies the forex to make the purchases as the president alleged? Even if the companies had indeed bought the machinery as intended would that forex come back to Malawi? I thought what we would have could have been machines just as we have a jet. So how would the actual purchase of machinery bring in forex in the country? I think this whole story is a hoax. Tiuzeni zoona tikukhululukirani. This habit of closing down companies and chasing out people from Malawi will not help us at all. Already many government institutions such as the University of Malawi are laying off staff. So who will employ us? Sorry for digressing but these issues are interlinked somehow.