Post-election violence cost Malawi K62bn, says Mutharika

President Peter Mutharika was on Friday June 5 counting post-election protest violence costs, saying it cost the country a whopping K62 billion.

In his recorded state of the nation address to parliament, Mutharika said the political violence disrupted businesses, undermined revenue collection and slowed down the economy.

“I must report to this Assembly that the vandalism; burning of government and private property; the cold blooded murders and mob killings; and the scaring away of tourists and investors has cost us around K62 billion,” he said.

He said the same suffering poor Malawian taxpayers and victims of the violence will pay the cost.

Mutharika said the motive of the violence was to obliterate the  Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)  economy and lable the government as a failure.

“They have failed. The negative drive to close down borders and airports was intended to shut down taps of revenue, suffocate the economy, subject innocent Malawians to suffering and create anger to incite people into the streets and overthrow the government. We survived,” he said.

He said as soon as the violence failed to shut down the borders and the economy, coronavirus came and locked down the world.

The President said business has slowed down, revenue collection undermined and demand to spend on social protection increased.

“This is part of the context in which our budget comes this year. In spite of the challenges, the economy continues to grow.

“The International Monetary Fund has once described Malawi as an excellent and over performing economy,” he said.

He described the economy as resilient which survived a crisis after another which included cashgate, floods and famines.