MP Chawawa wants Malawi micro-economic indictors to ‘trickle down’ to help poor: Demand time frame for Lirangwe-Chingale-Machinga Road

Zomba Chingale, member of Parliament (MP) Wallace Chawawa (People’s Party –PP) has said the micro-economic indicators that governmetn says  were stable and inflation was declining will somehow “trickle down” to the poor.

He told Parliament that  micro-economic indicators given by government that they were stable and that inflation was declining and that the exchange rates were stablet  are  merely statistics that are factual .

Chawawa said he has  a problem with how those statistics are translated to the rural people in the villages.

“I have in mind the people of Zomba Chingale, in particular, their suffering has not abated.  The change in the macroeconomic indicators has not trickled down to them.

“So, I want to speak in defence of the people of Zomba Chingale asking for more measures that can translate those gains into improvements in their standard of living,” he said.

Chawawa said the measures that are introduced to alleviate their suffering; for instance, the social cash transfer and the public works programmes are “alright, but they are addressing very few people in the communities, to the extent that the impact is so minimal.  As a result, every year we have the same problem arising.”

On the promised by government that  Lirangwe-Machinga Turn Off road which passes through Chingale and Lisanjala constituencies that construction of a tarmac road will commence soon, he said such  promises “have been given many times” and as at now, no specific timeframe has been given.

“ I noticed on the other roads that there are indications of when the road will be completed or when they will be started. Timeframe for this particular Zomba-Chingale Road has not been mentioned anywhere, not even a simple statement, but just a single sentence says that the road will start soon,” he noted.

He pleadedwith government to give a timeframe so that they  can hold it accountable as to its performance and completion.

“ People of Chingale have waited for a long time for this road to be constructed, and each time we are promised, we have hopes that things will begin.  But, simply telling us that this will begin soon, is an understatement.  We want something more than that.  Something that holds our patience; something that can give us hope that indeed this will start soon,” he said.

The 62.3-kilometre road extends northwards, passing through Chingale and Chinseu trading centres in Zomba district and connects the Zomba-Liwonde Road at Chingale Turn-off in Machinga.

Construction of the road is expected to improve the social and economic development of communities in the three districts.

Politicians have for past three decades been promising communities in the three districts that construction of the road would start soon, but nothing tangible has happened rather than using it as a campaign tool during elections.

Chiefs and their subjects in the area feel cheated and betrayed by the many unfulfilled promises governments have been making.

Former president Joyce Banda laid a foundation stone for the road just a few weeks before the May 2014 Tripartite Elections.

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