LILONGWE-(MaraviPost)-Malawi Vice President and UTM Party leader Dr. Saulos Chilima on Wednesday disputed claims of being political rhetoric over his decision offering three months salary towards COVID-19 prevention.
Chilima told the news conference at UTM Party communication command centre in the capital Lilongwe that his offer will be properly channeled to its intended purposes.
He instead advised President Peter Mutharika to cut further his salaries and that of cabinet ministers to 50% for meaningful impact.
The Vice President observed that the 10% Mutharika salary cut announcement was not enough to bring change towards the virus prevention.
The UTM leader their advised Mutharika to stay in Lilongwe than Blantyre to reduce costs of his working team that follows him.
He observed that President stay in the capital will easy costs and monitor on what is happening on the ground.
Below is full statement by Dr. Saulos K. Chilima, State Vice President/UTM President on Additional Measures to Contain Convid-19:
My fellow Malawians, In this time of despair as we all put our efforts together as a nation to fight Covid-19, I would like to engage with you on a number of issues on the Coronavirus pandemic that has gripped our nations as it has many nations.
Extraordinary moments require extraordinary people or leaders to take extraordinary measures.
I also reiterate what I have said before, I am available to assist in any capacity that the people of Malawi would want me to at no pay at a
Compatriots, allow me first to commend the Health Workers in Malawi and world over who are fearlessly standing in the frontline in the fight against COVID-19.
These brave men and women are risking their own lives to save our lives. These people are the perfect example of what selflessness means. Indeed, as it has been said before, never has so much owed by so many to so few. We really owe these gallant foot soldiers our gratitude. For a moment, I humbly ask you to please join me in applauding these very special people. Let’s all stand up, clap our hands and sincerely thank these gallant soldiers.
I also wish to convey heartfelt condolences to the bereaved family in Blantyre for the loss. May Her Soul Rest in Peace
My fellow Malawians, last Saturday, on 4th of April, President Arthur Prof. Peter Mutharika announced to the nation measures that the government has put in place measures as part of the national response to prevent the spread of and mitigate the impact of COVID-19.
While I commend President Mutharika for the announcement he made, I ask him and the government to consider the following firm measures to ensure that the lives of ordinary Malawians are protected and their livelihood cushioned from the effect of this pandemic.
- Equip, Empower, Motivate and Protect Our Health Workers
My fellow Malawians, the Covid-19 is serving a great lesson and a wake-up call to
the leadership of this country to improve our public health system which they
have habitually neglected and abused for a long time. With most countries
around the globe closing their borders, there is no chance for these leaders to
catch a flight and seek care in India, South Africa, Singapore or USA if they get
sick. This moment in time should make these leaders get serious start making
sure that our health facilities have adequate equipment and medical supplies, as
well as ensure enough and well-motivated health personnel. Talking about these
is not enough. We must act. We must walk the talk.
Indeed, much as I commend the President for directing that additional 2,000
health workers be employed, I urge the government that they should first ensure
that all health workers have the right protective equipment and make substantial
improvements in their welfare. It is very sad that while the members of the Cabinet
in the Special Task Force are collecting big fat seating allowances just to make
announcements on the work that our health workers on Covid-19, the health
workers who are actually doing the real work and risking their lives are being paid
peanuts. Some are not even being paid. This is shame. Even worse, their salaries
are generally low and the government owes arrears to many nurses, doctors,
clinicians and other cadres while everyday this government is overspending and
abusing funds on awkward priorities like spending hundreds of millions on South
African lawyers to defend the indefensible and implementing an illegal electoral
calendar that has no backing of the law.
My fellow Malawians, I hereby propose that the extra cash that the President committed to Malawi Enterprise Development Fund (MEDF) should instead be directed to the health sector for this purpose as opposed to MEDF where funds are
abused and mostly go to “ghost” borrowers and some politically connected
people who never pay back at all. - Facilities and Equipment
My fellow Malawians, while the Cabinet Committee on this pandemic has been
making statements assuring the public that we, as a country, are prepared and
ready to face and fight this pandemic, there are many glaring gaps in our preparedness. I say this not to undermine the noble efforts by many, including our
development partners and our health workers. I say this so that we can all be
transparent as regards our level of preparedness. We are talking about thousands of lives at stake here. As such, we cannot afford to be hazy or dishonest
when so many lives are at stake. These are some of our concerns:
i. We have been told that some tests which were done on some suspected
patients first turned our negative.
What if thousands get sick as we have seen elsewhere? We do not have enough
ICU beds for treating seriously ill Covid-19 patients. I am reliably told that we only
have 20 ICU beds. That is 1 bed for 1 million Malawians. Is this what call we being
well prepared? Remember that these beds are also being used by people with
our illnesses other than Covid-19. Let us be honest with ourselves. Only in that we
way can we start taking the necessary practical actions towards protecting innocent Malawians.
vi. Further, those ventilators can only be operated by specially trained professionals. The truth is there are very few people we have trained to do this. And we
do not have enough protective equipment for them and those that support them.
These are things that the politicians who we have designated to lead this fight
cannot tell the nation. They are simply lying to Malawians. I am saying this not to
scare Malawians or bring fear in their hearts. I am saying this because it would be
highly irresponsible for those of us in the know not to expose these lies. By being
silent, we shall be complicit in putting the lives of so many Malawians. I refuse to
be part of that scheme to hoodwink Malawians into believing that their government is anywhere near 10% ready to fight this virus. Let us admit our shortfalls
and seek assistance elsewhere. This is what other leaders like Governor Cuomo
of the State of New York in America is doing. He is pleading for help everyday. He
is doing so because he admits the shortfalls. It is not a sign of weakness to admit.
It is a sign of responsible leadership.
vii. On political leadership in the Ministry of Health and Population, I do not
want to say much as this may be misconstrued as a personal attack. But allow me
to ask President Mutharika this question, does he know that while all Ministers of
Health in the whole world were either fighting coronavirus or preparing for it, his
Minister of Health, instead of rallying his troops and marshalling State resources
to fight this pandemic, was busy campaigning to be the President of the Malawi
Olympic Committee as late as a few weeks ago? Mr. President, do you think this
person understands the enormity of the task of protecting millions of your
people? Is this the time to be doing petty sports politics? Does he have that
luxury? In the same vein, one would be asking exactly what and why did the other
Minister donate to China, the largest global manufacturer of medical equipment
and drugs? This is the same China that is donating the USA and other Western
countries. These jokes must stop. We cannot afford this silly humour when lives
of Malawians are at stake. - Interventions in the Economy
My fellow Malawians, I acknowledge while, right now, the Government needs
more resources to respond to COVID-19, the tax revenue has been negatively
affected by economic downturn with borders closed, slowness in business,
reduced productivity and even some companies downsizing and closing their operations. I commend the decision by the Monetary Policy Committee of the Reserve Bank of Malawi for releasing a further K12 Billion through the commercial
banks to support the private sector where whose businesses have been hit by the
effects of the pandemic. I hope they can do more now that they have reported
PAT of MK57bn. We need serious decisions and interventions to resolve our
issues.
While the stimulus package by the Reserve Bank of Malawi will help sustain businesses, I believe the government should equally do more in relieving the economic pressure on ordinary Malawians and should consider taking the following
temporary measures over the next 3 months:
• Remove VAT and Surtax on all medical equipment and hygiene items such
as soap and hand sanitizers to enable more people afford to practice regular
handwashing with soap as well as use hand sanitizers, which are the paramount
preventive behaviors promoted by the health experts.
• The government should reduce PAYE for middle earners and low earners.
• The government should reduce Corporate Tax from 30% to 20% to help
businesses sustain their operations as well as prevent job losses due to reduced
productivity.
• The government should suspend turnover tax for SMEs for three months
• The Reserve Bank of Malawi should offer a further stimulus package to
existing commercial banks and Small Medium Enterprises to ensure that the purpose really benefits those that will be hard hit by the inactivity and slow down of
businesses during this period of the Coronavirus crisis.
Further to the above, let’s make sure that as people work from home, there must
be power (magetsi). People will not work from home in the dark or with black outs - Further Reduce on Presidency and Cabinet Salaries
My fellow Malawians, I wish to confirm that 100 percent of my salary should go to
the Covid-19 fight initiative for the next three months. While I commend the President and the Cabinet for committing 10% of their salaries to the Covid-19, I
believe this is too little and insignificant. I, therefore, sincerely request the President and cabinet members to at least donate 50% of their salaries and fuel allocations to go toward COVID-19 response. Furthermore, I propose that Ministers
should not be given any allowance as they undertake their duties in the inter-ministerial committee on Covid-19. No-one should look at this disaster as an opportunity for making money or kudzip - Further Reduce Fuel Prices
My fellow Malawians, the statement by Malawi Energy Regulatory Authority
shows that decline for landing cost of petrol, diesel and paraffin is 33.04%,
20.61% and 27.18% respectively. This gives an average landing cost decline of
26.94%. The statement further shows that pump prices for petrol, diesel and
paraffin have declined by 16.13%, 13.75% and 9.71% respectively. This gives an
average decrease of pump price of 13.20%. This means that MERA has transferred only half (50%) of the benefits of the decrease to consumers.
In this crisis, it is important for the government that should care for its citizens.
Taking into account the fall in the landed price of petroleum products and also
taking into account that the exchange rate remains stable for now, I am calling on
MERA to further reduce the price by passing all the decrease in landing cost to
consumers at least for this period until the Covid-19 and its effect on economy
and livelihoods subside. When the decrease in landing cost is fully passed to
consumers, the pump price per litre will be K623 for petrol, K704 for diesel and
K505 for paraffin. - Reduce the Price of Water in Poor Areas
My fellow Malawians, good hygiene is extremely important in fighting this virus.
We need to constantly wash our hands. We need to clean our surfaces etc.
Households need a lot of water in order to do this. For many people in this
country, especially in poor areas, water is very expensive. As part of assisting
Malawians in these poor areas, I suggest that the water boards slush prices by at
least 30% for the next 3 months not only to encourage people to observe good
hygiene but also to cushion these households from the economic effects of the
pandemic. The water boards know these areas already. They must assist these
people. - President Mutharika Must Operate from Kamuzu Palace
My fellow Malawians, during this period, I request the President to consider operating in Lilongwe through this period where the seat of government is based. He
must lead and inspire Capital Hill at this moment. By staying in Blantyre, the government is losing more money paying hotel bills for Ministers and Government
officials as well as his support staff that have been to camp in Blantyre as well the
entire period the President is there. This is the time to suffer with the people and
abandon luxury. - Do not Politicise this Pandemic
My fellow Malawians, there is no DPP Coronavirus. There is no UTM Coronavirus.
There is no MCP Coronavirus. People’s Party Corona or UDF Corona. Therefore,
the leadership must walk the talk in showing the unity he is preaching.
Let us hold hands and show our people leadership.
In the same vein, I propose that district councils should be given extra powers at
this period to stop any gatherings whether by the government or opposition. They
should be in control to ensure that these directives are being implemented across
the board without being overpowered by overzealous political operatives.
Furthermore, I propose that the engagement of the media and announcement of
daily COVID-response updates be left to be handled by the health experts not
Ministers. There are very qualified people who are being left in the shadows while
incompetent politicians are putting themselves in front of cameras giving
half-truths to the people of Malawi. Let us leave these things to a team of relevant
government technocrats and health professionals to give the nation hard truths.
These are the people who should be leading us in this fight.
When fighting a crisis, the last thing the public wants is Communication Crisis.
Therefore, make sure accurate information is readily available to the media and
the public coming from competent government officials on the subject at hand.
The inter-ministerial committee and/or the Presidency can be handling other
crosscutting issues and engage the media one or twice a week to announce any
high-level measures. - Take Extra Care on Prison Decongestion
I would like to appeal to the prison authorities and officials at the Ministry of Home
Affairs not to bring corruption in the release of prisoners. We do not want to see
hard-core prisoners being released because relatives have paid money to
officials. - Transparency and Accountability in Handling Funds
My fellow Malawians, we have as a nation committed billions to this fight. Our
development partners like IMF have come in to assist too. I thank them
unreservedly. But I must warn those handling these funds. For many years,
billions of Kwacha have been committed to the public health system. Yet these
billions have ended up the pockets of a few criminal cartels and corrupt politicians while the system has been crumbling down. These vultures are already
encircling these billions set aside to save the lives of millions of Malawians in this
pandemic. To them, this is an opportunity to get rich quick. I must warn you that
we are watching. Each and every tambala shall be accounted for. “Ndipo
musayesere kuba ndalama zimenezi”. We shall hold you all personally liable and
we shall ensure that you spend the rest of your miserable lives in prison if your
criminal acts lead to the needless and avoidable deaths of innocent Malawians.
“Muwuzane kumeneko”.
Further, it is important to highlight the fact the essentials are still coming into
Malawi and that we will be ready assist with ARVs as required. We need not
create a panic moment at all. - Conclusion
My fellow Malawians, in general what we are saying is that let us put tough
measures and do not hold back. We should also be our brother’s keeper. Let us
remind each other to wash hands and keep social distance. Dot not go out of the
house for the sake of going out. As government, as political leaders we will do our
part – but the last decision is in your hands as an individual. We cannot wash your
hands on your behalf. We cannot wear a mask for you. This is not the time for
partying, bridal showers, chinamwali, and other unnecessary gatherings. There
will be a time for that. Consider this as a time of war, a war against an invisible
enemy, the coronavirus. Observing hygiene and social distancing. This virus is a
killer. Do not be misled. It kills white people, it kills black people; it kills rich
people, it kills poor people; it kills educated people, it kills uneducated people; it
kills the young and the old; men and women. Let us all join hands to fight this
enemy.
For those of you in self-isolation or quarantine, observe what the health experts
are telling you. In that way, you shall serve your lives and those that you love and
the whole country. We are behind you.
Let us all take a leading role so that we come out victorious in this fight. We shall
overcome this virus. Chiefs, Religious Leaders, Politicians and Business Leaders
it is our turn. Let us join the fight. We shall be a happy nation again.
God bless you all. God bless Malawi.
Dated today Wednesday, 8th April 2020
