Joyce Banda vows to continue with ‘handouts’ for social protection
Former president and People’s Party (PP) leader Joyce Banda has said she will continue to champion social protection for women, children, the vulnerable and underprivileged people in Malawi.
Banda highlighted her pro-poor priorities which she promises to undertake to uplift lives of its citizens when elected to return to power in May 21 2019 Tripartite Elections.
She said this at Chibavi in Mzuzu where she addressed a political rally on Sunday.
The former Malawi leader said provision of loans for small scale businesses, rural housing project such as Mudzi Transformation Initiative as well as social cash transfer are some of policies and concepts her government will propagate once ushered into power.
The PP leader has always said social protection as stipulated in the Sustainable Development Goals, SDGs, is one of the pillars for social economic development.
“Empowered citizens have the potential to effectively contribute towards sustainable social economic development of the country,” said Banda.
“I will continue to help the needy and my policies will always prioritize those in rural areas and the underprivileged, they are always in my heart,” she said.
Banda was once at the helm of NABW (National Association of Business Women) and has been a champion of charity through her Joyce Banda Foundation International, JBFI.
Thousands of children have gone through secondary and tertiary education through Joyce Banda’s fees initiative.
On education, Banda said she will improve infrastructure and student’s welfare.
She observed that our university students are currently going through turbulent times and their learning environment ought to be improved.
The PP leader also hinted on rural electrification saying portable and accessible energy is the way to go in a quest to deal away with wanton cut down of trees, as a solution environmental degradation.
The former president said she has vision is to transform and free the people from the yoke of underdevelopment.
Banda, the second female head of state in Africa and the first to lose an election in 2014, is currently going around the country sharing what she has to offer for Malawians.
She has since asked people in Mzuzu and the northern region to register their names in the ongoing voter registration exercise.
Despite some good strides she made, Banda lost the 2014 presidency partly due to corruption scandal dubbed Cashgate, some of which she inherited and some that were of her own making.
Banda was an accidental president whose rise came suddenly in 2012 when the increasingly authoritarian rule of Peter Mutharika’s brother, Bingu wa Mutharika, was cut short by a fatal heart attack.
By constitutional rights she, as vice-president, was the successor but Mutharika’s allies conspired to block her but she became President as a constitutional requirement.
She came third behind MCP’s Lazarus Chakwera in 2014 elections and left the country immediately after Mutharika was sworn in May 2014.
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