Chakwera pledges economic transformation for Malawi

Leader of opposition and Malawi Congress Party (MCP) presidential candidate in May 21 2019 elections, Lazarus Chakwera, has promised a radical socio-economic transformation if elected to be the country’s president.

Chakwera said in an exclusive interview on Times TV broadcast on Saturday which was anchored by maverick host Brian Banda.

He said MCP has plans to be outlined in the party manifesto to hasten Malawi’s socio-economic transformation through manufacturing, affordable housing, universal healthcare and food security.

Like Vice-President Saulos Chilima promise that  if his United Transformation Movement (UTM) forms the next government it will create one million jobs within one year, Chakwera also promised to create “even more than a million jobs” to spur economic development.

He said anyone running for president who promises to create less than four million jobs or who promises a one-size-fits-all solution for the complex and diverse unemployment causes of millions of Malawians is not serious or ready to govern.

“I, on the other hand, have a plan to create 4 million jobs across all employment sectors, including farming, within my first term, jobs that create wealth, last long, and create more jobs,” said Chakwera.

“To kick start the job creation boom, in the first 100 days, I will send a pro-jobs rescue budget to Parliament,” he added.

He said MCP is the only party that can be trusted to take bold steps to eradicate corruption that has rocked the public service, saying there is unanimity in the country that this vice must be eradicated.

Chakwera also vowed to crackdown on corruption, saying the era of thievery and quietly watching it, ends on May 21, 2019.

He charged that the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government had lied in promising that it would fight corruption, improve living standards, transform the economy, provide good governance and ensure equity and equality.

Chakwera said the DPP administration has “miserably failed” to deliver on its socio-economic promises to Malawians contrary to President Peter Mutharika’s claims.

He said there is no need for Malawians to keep DPP in power as it has failed in the four years it has governed the country in the three key categories of often feeding Malawians lies and stealing from them and torturing them.

Chakwera said his administration would embrace good governance where institutions will be measured by a credit score, mobilise financial resources needed to carry out the key investments in infrastructure and services and spend public resources judiciously on the key priorities, among others.

Asked by host Brian Banda to rate President Mutharika term, Chakwera gave the DPP government low marks, saying Mutharika can be given a fail grade of 20 percent mark out of 100.