Malawi Exclusive
Leader of the House in Parliament honourable Richard Chimwendo Banda, who is also Minister responsible for Homeland Security says there is a ray of hope that President Lazarus Chakwera and his Vice will redeem Malawians from the economic hardships they are facing.
The outspoken Minister told Parliament today that there is hope that the President will fix current economic challenges.
He was speaking in reference to the sentiments other politicians are making to indicate that President Lazarus Chakwera has failed to lead the country and also in reference to the ongoing demonstrations which comedian Bon Kalindo is leading.
Kalindo has been organising protests to force government slash down prices for commodities among others. He believes there is a high cost of living because of inflation on the commodities and services.
Globally, prices of commodities have been drastically rising, living Malawi’s neighboring countries such as the Africa’s major producing and exporting country- South Africa. Kenya, Tanzania and other countries have also not been exempted from the inflation challenge.
Global and regional analysts have recently attributed the high cost of living to the corona virus (covid-19) pandemic which led thousands of manufacturing companies to close businesses, thereby affecting thousands of people not only in Malawi but also in other developed countries.
In his attempt to mitigate the Covid-19 impact, President Lazarus Chakwera’s government raised a tax free band from K45,000 to K100 000 this year. He also increased salaries for civil servants with an average of 12 percent.
On the other hand the leader of the House indicated that the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is funding demonstrations and that the party will never bounce back to power. He observed that the political party’s leaders are cheating themselves by funding demonstrations currently taking place in the country.
President Chakwera earlier acknowledged that there are challenges which need to be fixed in the country. However, he reiterated that every Malawian should work extra harder and that everybody should make sacrifices if the country is to make good progress in the economic sector.