VP meets Malawians in Ethiopia, assures sound economic path
Vice President Khumbo Khachali on Saturday said Malawians had every reason to celebrate President Joyce Banda’100 days in office, describing the period as successful.
Kachali assured the nation that the People’s Party (PP)-led government would rid the country of the economic problems it inherited from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) with the passing of time.
Changes
He said 100 days had elapsed since Banda assumed the office on April 7 after the death of her predecessor Bingu wa Mutharika, and that the president was already proving her worth.
“We are in government as your servants,” Kachali said when he addressed Malawians living in Ethiopia at a reception the Malawi embassy hosted for the Vice President. “You are seeing the changes.”
Kachali arrived in Ethiopia on Saturday morning from London to represent President Banda at the 19th AU Heads of State and government summit which starts on Sunday.
He said one of the noticeable changes the country had witnessed under the leadership of Banda was the fact that people had their freedoms unlike during the reign of the immediate past government.
“These days you can feel that freedom. We now have freedom to express ourselves,” he said, adding that the freedom Malawians fought for in the early 1990s was taken away by the previous government.
He said Malawians should see themselves as one people regardless of the areas they come from. He said for that reason there was need to distribute job opportunities among Malawians.
“Let us give one another positions on merit and respect each other as Malawians,” Kachali told the gathering of embassy staff, and Malawians working for international organizations in Ethiopia.
Necessary evil
On the devaluation of the Kwacha, Kachali said it was a necessary evil that the PP government had to effect sooner than later if the country was to overcome its enormous economic challenges.
“We looked at what was best for our country. Today as result of the devaluation, foreign exchange is available which has resulted in the suffocation of the parallel market,” he said.
Kachali Said the shortage of foreign exchange reached such a critical point that even cabinet ministers had no choice but source it from the black market. He said the country had a bright future.
“As time goes, Malawi will be where it is supposed to be,” he said, adding that president Banda was a leader who “does things to move the country forward and not for political appeasement.”
Diaspora community
He urged Malawians living in the Diaspora to be proactive and suggest solutions to various problems that they were encountering. He said they had a crucial role to play in national development.
Earlier, the chairman of Malawi community in Ethiopia Chriss Kachiza highlighted problems that Malawians living abroad were facing such as access to land, lack of data base for Malawians in Diaspora.
Foreign Affairs Minister Ephraim Mganda Chiume said the government had made its missions abroad more accessible to its citizens than was the case under the DPP government.
