‘We’re on our own’ – Malawi President Peter Mutharika has admitted for the first time that Western donor nations and agencies, who bankroll up to 40 percent of the national budget, are not ready to bail out Malawi any time soon.
“We’re on our own; nobody is giving us any money,” President Mutharika said at a rally he addressed in the eastern town of Balaka. “We just have to work hard
Donors froze US $150m in pledged aid and all subsequent injections in the budget in reaction to the systematic plunder in public money dubbed ‘cashgate’.
The President appealed earlier in the week to Nevin UK’s high commissioner to Malawi to unfreeze the aid as Malawi has started prosecuting some of those that were responsible for the massive plundering of government coffers. The Mutharika government also felt incorrectly that the steps it has taken to redress the shortfalls would have been enough to allow the donors to release the funds.
