Malawi President Chakwera is held accountable for campaign promises

By Rick Dzida

It is not a mere coincidence that Malawi Congress Party (MCP) flag appeared alongside the face of Dr. Lazarus Chakwera on the ballot paper.

Malawians should not be distracted by the souring relationship between President Chakwera and his vice.

In Malawi we directly vote for the presidential candidate. And it is only the president who aligns with a particular political ideology.

Recently, President Chakwera has told the nation that Tonse Alliance political party leaders are not running this country. It is the elected President Chakwera under the Malawi Congress Party calling the shots at the moment.

Forget about the convenient electoral marriage among nine political parties.

President Chakwera will be judged in 2025 on how he fulfills the promises as enshrined in 2019 MCP manifesto.

Much as we acknowledge that some promises have no timeframe, but we expect the Chakwera Government to furnish us with the roadmap on how such promises will be fulfilled.

The following are some of the Chakwera’s promises as extracted from MCP manifesto:

1. Run a corruption free, efficient, effective and responsive government. unfortunately, corruption is rampant now.
2. Establish special Anti-Corruption Courts
3. President Chakwera will practice servant leadership

4.Undertake a comprehensive audit to develop in Government departments. Nothing is being done. Chakwera government is only guessing on which individuals were involved in misappropriation of funds.

5. Ensure that the President appears before Parliament.
6. Make it a practice for the President to work from the Capital Hill office on a regular basis.
7. Implement service level agreements for every government ministry and department as a basis for holding office bearers accountable to Malawians.
8. Raise the minimum wage from MK 25,000 to MK 50,000 and the zero-rated Pay as You Earn (PAYE) tax from K 35,000 to MK100,000 to ensure working Malawians have a dignified living.
9. Set up a bank to concentrate on giving credit to the youth and women
10. Introduce universal Farm Input Subsidy Program to spur agricultural productivity as a key contributing factor to a minimum annual economic growth rate of 6% for the next 10 years.
11. Introduce the production, value addition and marking of industrial and medicinal hemp in
    Malawi.
12. Revitalize the operations of the Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation (ADMARC) through a comprehensive review
13. Change the fiscal year to run from 1st April to 31st March in order to align it with the country’s agricultural season.
14. Review all existing tax and interest rate policies and legislation.
15. Deal with electricity blackouts within the first year of taking government, targeting to generate at least 2000 megawatts of electricity within the next five years.
16. Finalize the national climate change policy framework and implement priority actions
17. End the abduction and killing of people with albinism by treating these crimes as capital offences punishable by death without the option for clemency.
18. Implement the National Action Plan for protecting persons with albinism and introduce social cash transfers
19. Ensure that no Malawian dies in hospital due to negligence, or unhygienic practices, or lack and mismanagement of basic health care facilities.
20. Abolish the discriminatory quota system of selecting students for tertiary education,
    improve terms of service for teachers, and computerize secondary and tertiary education.
21. Reintroduce the Junior Certificate of Education.
22. Introduce a National Youth Service (NYS) and Jobs4Youth Program that offers vocational skills training to all out-of-school youth.
23. Construct a state-of-the-art national netball complex capable of hosting international competitions to fast track our 10-year goal to become the number one netballing country in the world.
24. Enforce and promote the 2013 Gender Equality Act.
25. Establish a National Truth and Reconciliation Commission to facilitate a nationwide process of addressing prevailing historical wounds and charting a united way forward.
26. Practice transparency and accountability in the procurement and administration of contractors to ensure value for public money for all investments.
27. Establish modern bus terminals in every district across the country and introduce city lines and the Futran System to address urban transportation problems.
28. Protect Malawian ownership of land by ensuring that no foreigners own land in Malawi.
29. Repossess and redistribute all land that has been fraudulently allocated or that remains idle and undeveloped beyond the specified development period.
30. Ensure more coordinated planning and development of urban areas and enforce quality and zoning controls and standards for all developments in cities.
31. Launch a bold infrastructure expansion project aimed at doubling the tarred road network, modernizing cities, and building new airports, houses, bridges, and schools.
32. Take immediate executive measures to stop the killing and abduction of people with albinism and guarantee their security at personal, household, and community levels.

34 Establish a new Police Academy as a strategy to increase the number of police
personnel with advanced skills and techniques in crime detection, investigation, and prosecution.

35. Improve the terms of service and policing standards for the Malawi Police Service and increase the presence of police officers in rural communities toenhance law and order.

36 Strengthen border posts in all border areas to stamp out illegal immigration, illegal imports and exports, human trafficking, and drug trafficking and smuggling.

37. Ensure equitable and meritorious distribution of appointments to diplomatic missions,
    including a gender balance, forthe nation’s interests. 38.Strengthen the capacity of our military
    to defend the country from any external aggression at all times, whether on land, or lake, or in the air, or cyberspace.
38. Completely automate government services educe presidential powers in public appointments.
39. Make the Public Service Commission independent of political influence so as to entrench the culture of meritocracy
40. ACB director must be recruited through parliament. She must regularly also report to the nation through the parliament.
41. Devolve up to 20% of the national budget to local councils by first term of being in office as commitment to transforming local governments into centres and agents of local development.
42. Grant a 30 day amnesty to all those involved in corruption to voluntarily surrender their assets that were corruptly acquired beyond which they will be subjected to prosecution
43. Modernise Judiciary by automating its operations.
44. Operationalize the Access to Information Act to ensure that government is always transparent and accountable to its citizens.
45. Turn the Malawi Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) and Television Malawi (TVM) into genuine public broadcasters to serve the country’s national interest.
46. Guarantee the independence of the Judiciary so that it is impartial and effective
47. Reduce the size of the presidential convoy to less than 10 vehicles but without compromising the security of the Head of State.
48. Discontinue stopping traffic when the President is passing by so as to minimize public disturbances as much as possible.
49. Appoint a Cabinet that is gender balanced and representative of the country’s social diversity including the disadvantaged sections of the population
50. Reduce the level of domestic and external debt from the current MK 3.5 Trillion to less than MK 1 Trillion within the next five years.
51. Ensure that the rate of economic growth is higher than the population growth rate as a strategy to fast track sustainable economic growth rate targeting an annual growth rate of not less than 6% for the next 10 years.
52. Improve the youth’s access to financial services by developing suitable credit and finance facilities through the Young Agri-preneurs Centre of the Agricultural Finance Bank.
53. Promote monetary policy designed to sustain low rates of inflation.
54. Introduce universal fertilizer subsidy to ensure that fertilizer is accessible to all farmers at affordable prices.
55. Move access to electricity from 11% to 60% within the next five years with particular emphasis on rural areas.
56. Establish village factories as an integral part of rural industrialization by exploiting the comparative advantages of different localities across the country.
57. Establish village factories as an integral part of rural industrialization by exploiting the comparative advantages of different localities across the country.
58. Develop a Comprehensive Mining Strategy (CMS) that provides for domestic and foreign
    investment in mining
59. Establish new Lake Malawi tourist cities in Karonga, Salima and Mangochi
60. Enforce the legislation that makes primary school education compulsory to make sure that no child is left behind.
61. Ensure that each and every primary school going child sits on a desk and does not learn either under a tree or in dilapidated classrooms including those that are grass thatched unless they are professionally done by 2024.
62. Improve the conditions of service for teachers by among other things providing them with decent housing; a predictable career and promotion structure; and clearing all salary and leave grant arrears.
63. Provide free sanitary pads to all adolescent girls in all primary schools across the country

66.Adopt a zero-tolerance policy to drug pilferage by installing real time monitoring systems for drugs in all health facilities.

67. Ensure that every Malawian in every village has access to safe and portable water within the next three years.
68. Construct the Lake Malawi-Lilongwe water project
69. Upgrade the M1 road to the state of art from Nsanje to Chitipa to facilitate efficient and effective communication across the country.
70. Establish police and MDF Academy
71. Provide decent housing to MDF, police and immigration.
72. Establish a new National Airliner
73. Establish modern bus terminals in every district across the country and introduce city lines
74. Revive the construction and maintenance of rural feeder roads modelled on the District Road Improvement and Maintenance Programme (DRIMP).
75. Remove all tariff and non-tariff barriers on internet facilities (including laptops and computers, cables, modems, routers etc.) in order to reduce the price of broadband
    internet.

Feedback: Rick Dzida, email; rdzida@gmx.com
Disclaimer: The views expressed in the article are those of The author not necessarily of The Maravi Post or Editor