MCP hits back at government

The main opposition Malawi Congress Party (MCP) has hit back at government accusing it of trying to divert people’s attention from pressing issues that are affecting the country.

This comes hot on the hills of accusations by the executive arm of government against the legislature of reckless spending tax payers money on the buying of state of the art vehicles for the Leader of Opposition and the Speaker of Parliament and his two deputies.

Government through its spokesman Jappie Mhango accused Parliament of blowing about K300 million on cars without taking into consideration the economic turmoil the country is going through.

Director of Public Relations for MCP, Alekeni Menyani said in an interview with Nyasa Times that the current accusations by the executive arm of government against Parliament are meant to divert people’s attention from pressing issues such as the health care crisis, the unopened Admarc markets due to hiccups in Farm Input Subsidy Program and high inflation on basic commodities.

Menyani said the Information minister is actually pressing panic button through these attacks, adding that government should open up and tell Malawians if it has failed to govern them.

“The tactic is to muzzle opposition legislators during the forthcoming Parliament session so that they can get away with the UNGA (United Nations General Assembly ) travel saga and executive arrogance,” said Menyani.

He said MCP as the main opposition will continue with the mission of pushing forward the development agenda by sustaining democratic tenets and its values to restore the dignity of the Malawian people.

“Malawians are our sole priority and we shall stand by their side besides whatever propaganda being peddled. As a party we also have learnt the hard way on what is expected of us in this time of economic hardships,” said Menyani.

He added that it is important for the opposition to use its energy into fights and counter fights to help Malawi come out of the current economic crisis.

The past few weeks the executive has engaged an extra gear by accusing Parliament of spending tax payers money recklessly with the recent blowing of about K233 million  on Committee meetings that never took place.

However, Parliament had parried away the accusations saying the money that was used to buy the cars was budgeted for in the 2014/15 financial year and was duly authorised by the Office of the President and Cabinet.