Malawi opposition say majority still stuck in extreme poverty
Malawi opposition parties have said despite President Peter Mutharika touting economic stability , still large populations are living in extreme poverty.
They argue that the country will not be able to combat poverty by the time Mutharika will be seeking a second and final term in 2019 unless radical measures are taken to rescue the 16 million people under the poverty line.
People’s Party (PP) spokesman Noah Chimpeni said failure to reduce poverty is threatening Malawi’s economic success.
He said the Mutharika administration should reduce “inequality” and fulfil “promises” to improve life of the majority.
“There were a lot of promises that this government made at the beginning of their term but disappointingly most of these are yet to be fulfilled,” Chimpeni said.
“All we have seen is the President presiding over ground-breaking ceremonies in order to be seen as doing something. These could have even been done by ministers,” he added.
Chimpeni also blamed worsening corruption and that a lot of money was being sucked up by government officials through mismanagement.
“People’s lives are still stuck in abject poverty. We can no longer make propositions for them to work on. We will just wait for election,” he said.
Malawi Congress Party (MCP) deputy secretary general Eisenhower Mkaka also said the negatives outweighed the positives in the year 2017 and thus “negatively affecting the general welfare of the people.”
