Mutharika under fire for chartering plane as Malawi economy is teetering on a brink of total collapse
Malawi President Peter Mutharika has come under fire for chartering a plane to get a personal honarary degree when he is preaching austerity amid abject poverty, acute food shortages and a sinking economy – prompting analysts and opposition to observe that the DPP administration is failing to “rig the economy”.
Mutharika chartered a South African plane to go to Ethiopia where he got a doctorate degree of Letters.
Mustafa Hussein, lecturer at University of Malawi’s Chancellor College described the president action as regrettable.
“The country is going through turbulent economic times and for the problem to charter a plane to get a personal degree the university was honouring him for his past career goes against the same spirit of austerity which he always tell us,” said Hussein.
He said the country is going through deep probems including acute food shortages.
“Ethiopia is just four hours away therefore it was unnecessary for the president to charter a plane,” he said.
Mutharika has been conferred the doctorate degree of Letters from the University of Addis Ababa where he lectured for years before trekking to the US.
Information minister Patricia Kaliati said she did not know if the State House chartered a plane for the president but described the criticisms as “jealousy.”
She said some Malawians are funny that instead of being thankful that their head of state has been conferred an honarary degree they are busy fault finding.
Speaking on arrival from Ethiopia, President Mutharika said he was conferred the honarary degree because of his efforts to turn Malawi from a donor dependent to a trade dependent.
In addition, he said, the university was honouring him because of his efforts to improve on electricity outages and water woes.
However as he spoke, some parts of the Capiital City, Lilongwe had no water and electricity.
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Chambe,Iam not sure how far you went with your education.I know JB and BM are semi-literate and therefore,their performances were below intellectural grade.However,it is brutally wrong to say that under Peter Mathanyula,the cost of saving on his travel budget has been so far so good,personally,if I have to rate him,he would gate 1.5/10.Chambe this is not the time to judge someone on tribal or ethnical basis.What has Peter achieved on chartering a Plane,at a time when our people are brutally and inhumanly suffering for lack of food and that the economy of our nation is nose diving and there is… Read more »
Stupid journalists you dont want a new presidential jet you dont want him to board a jet so tell us jow does he travel to ethiopia then let us buy him a new jet to cut expences
Hey He is a president of a country not association!! You want him to walk to Ethiopia? Insensitivity is killing Malawians. He deserves to treated as a president of a Nation. No issues here
Does Kaliati have the guts to look through things? Why can’t she ask herself why leaders in the West don’t get these stupid degrees, but our leaders always dream of having them? Does she think leaders in the West are failures when they are in fact feeding us everyday? What is an honorary degree after all. If Mugabe has been declining to be offered such degrees, what significance does it have for our leader to spend so much money to charter a plane? Nonsense. Kaliati’s argument simply characterizes her low level of education and intellectual capacity. Sad that this country… Read more »
And then you tell parastatals not to adjust their staff salaries. Is the aim to give our president more to misuse or salary harmonization? Your guess is as good as mine.
Mustafa Hussein, is just an idiot who is not known anywhere. He finds this forum to publicize himself so that Malawians are aware that there is one called Mustafa. Idiot!
Malawi is a total shame indeed…chartering a plane just to get a useless paper like honorary doctorate. Why cant you borrow a leaf from the esteemed leadership qualities of Mugufuli and Kagame who have the patriotism and welfare of the grassroots at heart. Imagine since he became a president Mugufuli has foreign visit has been to Rwanda only….I mean Rwanda only…. But to our dismay the parliament was busy approving 30 foreign travels for the president in this financial year ….really? Lets put our country first…there is nothing like jealousy but the cost of this journey would have made something… Read more »
So you want the President to be boarding Kabanza planes? Why did you not ask why Joyce Banda sold the Presidential jet? Why don’t you ask the where about of its proceeds? Jealousy people will never last long. You stupid guyz aren’t you ashamed that the President is able to run the country without budgetary support? Shame on you
We got you but why are we not squeezing JB to tell us where the jet is and the proceeds too?
on of the the sole catastrophic mingle facing maalawi is “priolity miopia”……… so much much as an honourary degree is there but to wat extent will the degree add value to the malawi nation>?……i bet 50 million has been coughed here,,,,,,,,,which other wise would have payed over 1000 schoo teachers who have gone un payed over months,,,,,,the same fifty million is again worth catering for over 140 students who have been impinged on the fess hike locking Unima,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,but in the artificial call of nature we chose to fly all the way just to be honoured……….exit zitete antagonist enter che akwen… Read more »
Really?! Charter a plane when everyday there is a flight by Ethiopian Airlines, one of the cheapest airfares around!!!! This man is a thief and a fool. And ‘jealousy’, seriously Kaliati. Try ‘reasonable’ as people are fed up with all this stupidity.