Tag Archives: Tonse Government

Lifestyle, Politics

Chakwera’s doomed Canaan continues tormenting Malawians as basic items’ prices rise up

Maravi Post Reporter
Chakwera’s Tonse government under fire for tormenting Malawians

BLANTYRE-(MaraviPost)– What was promised as land of milk and honey has turned into a nightmare where Malawians are grappling with the continued rise in prices of essential goods and services.

Eleven nonths after the Tonse Alliance came into power, prices of goods, especially consumables, are escalating at what economists term to be ‘alarming rate.

In Mzuzu, prices of cooking oil seem to be adjusted upwards at every day break and, at times, at the split of a millisecond.

Through a voxpop interviews collaborated with our sister paper Malawi24 this week from common citizens on economic trends in the country, many described the status quo as drooping, dreading and worrisome.

“Imagine, a 1 litre bottle of cooking oil, the common ones, is now selling at MK1,700. Tomorrow, we might have and adjustment. Everything is astronomical. This is worrisome to us as common citizens,” whined Jeremiah Soko, resident of Zolozolo township, Mzuzu.

About a year ago, a 2 litre bottle of cooking oil was costing K2000 but now consumers have to part ways with MK4000. Prices of bread, salt and sugar have also gone up.

Added Jonathan Mlotha, a resident of Chiputula; “Due to the surge in prices of goods, rentals and all other basic necessities have been hiked. This is bad timing. We are victims of Coronavirus adversities and being clobbered with such bad economic whip is unbearable.”

Malawi is among the poorest countries in the world. About 80% of the citizens are in indescribable poverty as they are living below US$1 a day.

“In fact, most of us, aren’t even living under a dollar a day. Maybe US$0.001. the situation is very agonizing. It’s tougher than before,” lamented Chigomezgo Nyirenda, resident of Mchengautuwa.

Recent inflation figures indicate a rise by about 3% as it hovers around double figures.

Economic expert, Hurry Chima of Chimango consultancy warned, in an interview, things would go worse in the upcoming months.

“There are many contributing factors to the unstableness of inflation and the bad economy. One of it is, in fact, a cliche. The GDP. A country that imports more than its exports is best known by high inflation and economic instabilities,” he said.

“Adverse effects of Covid-19 can, as well, not be left unmentioned.”

Meanwhile, the economic trends have, among others, also rendered thousands of people jobless following massive retrenchments in most private companies that are making huge loses.

Finance minister, Felix Mlusu is, however, upbeat, things would come back to normal soon. Through what he describes as a pro-poor budget, the minister believes Malawians will benefit to the core.

Critics of the budget, such as the opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), argue that the government has not reduced tax on essential commodities and has not shown commitment to stabilize the Kwacha hence prices will continue to go up.

The country’s social rights body, Centre for Democracy and Economic Development Initiatives (CDEDI) has been pressing for removal of punitive taxes Chakwera’s Tonse government has put on basic items but nothing has been worked on.

Chakwera who was vocal for nothing while in opposition a year of ago with Malawi Congress Party (MCP) are living in denial that life now is unbearable.

The President is in fantasy and local and global trotting using tax payers money while making glowing speeches.

Chakwera is slowly losing public trust that soon pressure will be mounting on him the way former President Peter Mutharika and DPP were booted out of state house.

Business, Malawi

Malawi President Chakwera given seven days to scrap off VAT on cooking oil

Maravi Post Reporter 1 Comment
Namiwa addressing the presser on punitive taxes

By Iommie Chiwalo

LILONGWE-(MaraviPost)-The country’s civil rights body, the Centre for Democracy and Economic Development Initiatives (CDEDI) has spoken tough against punitive taxes and has since given the Chakwera-led Tonse alliance administration seven days notice to address the same.

Addressing the news conference with farmers on Saturday, April 3, 2021 in the capital Lilongwe, CDEDI Executive Director Sylvester Namiwa reiterates its stand against punitive tax regimes that end up punishing the vulnerable and the marginalized Malawians who are in majority in the country.

Namiwa therefore gave the Tonse Alliance Government seven days to scrap off VAT on cooking oil, and find other means of generating revenue from the local manufacturers; commence a review of its tax regime in order to revise all the taxes that are chocking the local industry and hitting hard on the ordinary Malawians, 80 percent of whom are living in rural areas and depend on subsistence farming.

“Should this demand land on deaf ears, which is mostly the case with the current Tonse Alliance administration, then CDEDI will be left with no choice but to mobilize all Malawians of good will to hold nationwide demonstrations, until such demands are adhered to.

Namiwa says is sad to note Tonse Alliance government’s continued disregard for the poor people in the country, by among other things, introducing tax regimes that have ended up punishing the poor people through loss of jobs; increase of prices for basic goods and services.

He says a recent example is the introduction of 16.5% Value Added Tax (VAT) on cooking oil, a
development that has pushed up the cost of living, and has turned most poor people into scavengers.

‘Today, an average Malawian cannot afford to buy the locally produced cooking oil since the prices have sky-rocketed, with a price adjustment of almost 100%. It is for this reason that CDEDI is challenging all Malawians of good will to join a crusade to force the Tonse Alliance Government, under President Dr. Lazarus Chakwera to start championing pro-poor policies in order to protect the marginalized from hazardous smuggled edible oils that have flooded the local
market,” he says.

Namiwa further elaborates that CDEDI has been forced to take this route, after it has realized that government
has shut the door on the poor people, if the admission by the Director of Revenue in the Ministry of Finance Kenneth Matupa is anything to go by.

“In a virtual meeting that was held recently between CDEDI and the ministry,Matupa made it very clear that the ministry was aware that the introduction of VAT on cooking oil has pushed up the prices of cooking oil on the local market, and that this has in turn opened up a market for smuggled oil products, whose safety nobody can guarantee,” he says

Adding that Mr. Matupa further admitted that there are lapses to contain smuggling in general, not only on cooking oil, but on various products because, as he put it, the malpractice is being
perpetuated in most cases by the influx of foreign nationals that are living in Malawi illegally, doing illegal business in undesignated premises.

On a sad note, the CDEDI Executive Director disclose that a recent study by the Mangochi District Health Office on food fortification revealed that most people are consuming foods that do not contain the required mineral and vitamins, by indicating that out of the eight cooking oil samples which were scrutinized, only one contained the required Vitamin A.

“Having analyzed the outcome of the meeting, CDEDI has come to believe that there is either general neglect of duties by some officers in the law enforcement agencies responsible for containing the influx of both illegal goods and
immigrants into the country, or the Tonse Alliance administration is deliberately introducing the punitive tax regimes in order to suffocate the local industry in an attempt to bring in their own preferred business interests,” Namiwa says while stressing that the latter can be true, looking at the recent closure of private companies such as the Kanengo Tobacco Processors Limited in Lilongwe, and the announcement by Bakhresa Group of Companies that they are closing their soap making plant in Mzuzu.

“It appears the plan by the Tonse administration is working out perfectly well, since no government official, not even the responsible ministers for Trade and Industry, has come out to make a statement on this very sad development about the closure of companies in the country. As an advocacy institution on human rights, CDEDI has come in to stand with the voiceless, and we are demanding government to scrap off VAT on cooking oil, which has ended up making the poor people even more miserable, and has posed a great threat to the survival of the local industry which besides creating jobs, is also bringing in the much-needed foreign exchange through the sale of the soya cake, a byproduct of cooking oil from soya beans,” he says.

The CDEDI Chief also highlighted that the current lapses need urgent attention as they have a negative bearing on economic front.

He says, for records sake, from such exports, the country realizes a minimum of US$60 million annually,
and the industry is providing permanent employment to 1, 600 people and 800 casual labourers.

“If the Tonse Alliance administration is really serious about uplifting the livelihood of poor Malawians, then let them start implementing policies that really resonate well with the local people, such as scrapping off the 16.5% VAT in cooking oil; a product that is commonly and mostly used by the local people in the villages for small scale businesses such as making mandasi, locally made cakes, kanyenya,”

Wilfred Dula, Mchinji farmer from Traditional Authority (T.A) Zulu echoed with Namiwa of Chakwera’s leadership insensitive over Malawians needs.

Dula worried with introduction of 3% holding tax on agriculture produces arguing that it is uncalled to already stricken farmers.

Business, Malawi

Tonse Govt terminates Motal Engil’s MK5.1bn: Why now?

Maravi Post Reporter
Chilima inspecting one of Malawi’s roads

By Thandie Chadzandiyani

BLANTYRE-(MaraviPost)-President Lazarus Chakwera’s Tonse government has terminated a MK5.1 billion contract with contractor Mota Engil to build the road even though people of Rumphi and Chitipa struggle to travel through the Rumphi-Nyika-Nthalire-Chitipa Road which is in poor state which was also included in the contract.

Chief Chikulamayembe, demanded an explanation on the delay to complete the work which forced the Roads Authority chief executive officer Engineer Emmanuel Matapa on Saturday, March 20, 2021 in pains to explain why the contract was terminated.

He was speaking during Deputy Minister of Transport Nancy Chaola Mdooko’s tour of the road to appreciate challenges that people face and the need to expedite construction.

Only six kilometres was partly constructed with Mota Engil attributing the development to Capital Hill’s failure to provide the contractor with resources.

The first phase of the road’s construction, covering 20 kilometres, which was launched by former president Peter Mutharika in 2018.

Said Matapa: “The project went into some contractual disputes, so it has resulted in termination of that 20-kilometre contract. There were a number of issues, like delayed payments, rainfall. So, we thought it wise that amicably we close the contract.

“The money we use is budgeted, we pay for the activities that somebody has done. The contracts we go into are what are called ad-measurements contracts, we only pay for what has been executed. The rest of the money will be transferred to other activities within the road sector.”

However, he could not provide details on how much they have paid the contractor since 2018, insisting he needed to check the figures.

Matapa added: “Unless I go through the books, otherwise I will be giving wrong figures. I don’t have figures now, but it’s a small percentage. We have seen the stretch constructed was only about six kilometres.”

The proposed maintenance works, according to a project document we have seen, will include grading the entire road, concrete works and masonry works.

“To shorten the procurement process, and also to make sure that the woks are carried out within the shorted period possible, the proposal is to engage the two contractors already working in the Northern Region.

“They are Zhenjing Communications Construction Company Ltd that are upgrading the Mzimba-Mzarangwe road project and China Railway No.5 currently  upgrading the Jenda-Edingeni road project. Works will commence once confirmation of funding is received from Treasury.

We always use open tendering, indicating that they will open up for tendering Matapa argued after being asked why they have preferences when selecting companies to work with.

When contacted yesterday, Mota Engil spokesperson Thomas Chafunya declined to comment on the matter.

Mdooko said the road remains one of government’s priorities.

She said: “We will soon start constructing the road. Currently, government has identified some resources to do the grading and graveling mostly in the difficult parts.

“Let me assure the people of Nthalire, Rumphi and Nyika that the Tonse government is a listening one and in six months time, the main project will start. But for the grading, it will start very shortly.”

Such that Paramount Chief Chikulamayembe has urged government to walk the talk.

“We are tired of promises that do not materialise, this time, please let government be truthful. There should be less talking, and more action,” he said.

The road passes through Nyika National Park, which has one of the most beautiful and rare landscapes and wildlife.

The road will provide easy mobility and accessibility to the park to both local and international tourists. It will also ease transportation of people and agricultural produce and other goods in the area and also provide a link to access other markets in the whole country.

Lifestyle, Opinion

Law Professor Danwood Chirwa chides, “There’s no leadership skills in Chakwera, he’s all empty talk”

Maravi Post Reporter 1 Comment

PRETORIA-(MaraviPost)-Malawians are riding the tide of misplaced outrage once again, which is itself outrageous. Party functionaries, in a bid to divert attention from the real culprit, who is one and at the top, have invaded social media spaces with wild accusations against civil servants as if they’re the ones who approve budgets and direct where money must be spent.

The reality is that Dr Chakwera has shown time and time again that he lacks the ability to lead Malawi and end corruption.

He installed a government that critics called ‘incenstious’, excluded women and included crooks. He later made controversial appointments, including a bloated coterie of advisors and to statutory entities that also excluded women and violated statutory provisions.

About the pandemic, there’s ample evidence proving that the President is singularly responsible for the failure to contain the virus and for using the pandemic to line up the pockets of his party and patronage networks.

We know this from the following facts:

  1. The President neglected the pandemic before he took office and after he took office, even as many commentators were calling for the declaration of a health emergency.
  2. The President refused to declare improving healthcare services and ending corruption top priorities of his government. His first speeches paid lip service to these important issues, and were rightly criticised by commentators.
  3. The Present thought it wise to travel to other countries in the region with huge entourages, entangling himself in scandals in South Africa involving the smuggling of prophet and prophetess, and in Botswana involving the failure by the Malawian delegation to observe Covid protocols. He was the only President traveling around, in reckless disregard of the pandemic. These trips also entailed wasteful expenditure at a time of economic hardship. The message was clear to the public that there was no pandemic to be afraid of.
  4. The President failed to familiarise himself with the urgent needs of the hospitals in the time of the pandemic. Had he done so, he would have recognised where the money needed to go and directed it there timeously.
  5. When prominent people including ministers started dying, the President made pubic announcements in panick. It was foreseeable that the situation would get out of hand. I know this because I was there at the end of December to beginning of January and visited one of the central hospitals. It was evident then that a tragedy was impending. It could have been avoided by taking simple targeted measures, not a careless spending spree.
  6. The public announcements made by the President were attuned to the ears of political supporters rather than to the reality in the ground. The speeches disclosed a clear intention to take advantage of the pandemic to line up people’s pockets. There was nothing in the speeches that specified what the government would to to boost capacity to handle Covid admissions and bolster prevention measures. Overly inflated sums of money were spouted with no clear justification. At first it was 6.2 billion, then again 17.5 billion. The President mentioned in the most general terms the sectors to be given the money. Health was mentioned in passing. There was no explanation why the other sectors were being given money in addition to their normal budgets and in quick succession. Neither did the President indicate the proportion that was reserved for the hospitals (especially those facing the largest admission numbers).
  7. The government prioritised sending money to district councils among other irrelevant government institutions. Everyone knew that these councils and other givernment departments were peripheral to the specific emergency at hand. There was no explanation for the specific disbursements and so it is not surprising that the councils other departments didn’t know what to do with it. This was money given gratis without terms, with no purpose.
  8. Many items of expenditure have been reported which rest on clear falsehoods. The President knows or ought to know that these heads of expenditure are cover for fraud and theft, which he must have foreseen or intended.
  9. The President never expected to exercise oversight over the expenditure despite his public declarations. It is a humble and diligent citizen Idriss Ali Nassah who took it upon himself to call DODMA to account. In typical fashion, the President woke up from his slumber to make an appearance that he was asking for an account. To date he hasn’t taken any action, as he has failed to do before.

Let Malawians not fool themselves. You have a government led by a man who is deeply flawed. He has no leadership skills. He has no vision. He has no ambition. He has no standards. He offers nothing but empty talk. He’s presiding over a criminal enterprise — like his predecessors.

Opinion

Talking Blues: Mr President, shame on you too

Mapwiya Muulupale
HOME POLITICS We lied in order to win. We will not create one million jobs – Chakwera We lied in order to win. We will not create one million jobs – Chakwera

Written by Mapwiya Muulupale

Sometimes, wrote Friedrich Nietzsche, people do not want to hear the truth because they do not want their illusions destroyed.

Friedrich Nietzsche

Under the so-called Tonse Government, this behavior is quickly becoming the norm. As I write, there are multitudes refusing to believe that the much-touted Tonse Philosophy was all a hoax despite increasing evidence.

Before I proceed, let me debunk the propaganda that just because:

• the Tonse government has failed to immediately implement the universal fertilizer subsidy it promised.

• passport fees have not been reduced as promised, and

• a million jobs in year one promise is now being tossed like a hot potato onto laps of people who promised no one a job.

the Tonse Government has failed.

I beg to differ. The Tonse Government has not failed. Not yet.

That said, some of President Lazarus Chakwera’ ill-advised decisions are creating a solid foundation for colossal failure and several indicators of impending public dissatisfaction are sending out worrisome red flashes.

Where can I start?

“No one can construct for you the bridge upon which precisely you must cross the stream of life, no one but you are alone.”

These words of wisdom from Nietzsche also hold true for a leader wishing to succeed.

For Chakwera to succeed, by the end of his first hundred days, he should have – at a minimum – built a solid hierarchy of women and men capable of innovating our way to prosperity.

To deliver the ambitious Tonse promises, Chakwera needed a top-notch cabinet, sophisticated board members and parastatal CEOs that you could leave your wallet with and on return, find all the contents intact.

Today, I will not dwell on Chakwera’s cut and try cabinet again because I already dealt with that. The same applies to reports of bribe soliciting senior Tonse ministers. Since they do not have that much to do, why not finagle a bribe or two from contractors?

The thing is: while the higher a monkey climbs, the smaller he appears to those below; as that monkey climbs higher, the more he exposes his buttocks. The enhanced ‘buttocks’ exposure is why Tonse’s failure to ensure equitable and meritorious distribution of appointments, including a gender balance, as promised, is a serious matter.

Look here:

• Which Malawian president has had people demonstrating at the time she/he should be basking in a first 100-day victory lap?

• Answer = Chakwera.

Chakwera faced his first major nationwide protests on Friday. The demos, organised by the Women Manifesto Movement, were protesting Chakwera’s failure to fulfil the Gender Equality Act (GEA) requirement of 60:40 representation of either sex in public appointments.

While the GEA stipulates not less than 40 per cent and not more than 60 per cent of either sex in public service appointments, of the 54 filled boards, only 11, representing 20.37 per cent, comply with the law.

The NGO-GCN chairperson, Barbara Banda said,

“We want to mobilize the women’s movement to make a stand against systemic discrimination in public appointments. We … are unhappy.”

I sympathise wholeheartedly with all the people, both women and men of goodwill, feeling let down by Chakwera’s hypocrisy vis-à-vis Tonse’s stated promise to “enforce and promote the 2013 Gender Equality Act to redress the gender imbalance in the employment and appointment of women in decision-making positions.”

Even before we talk about the broken law, a promise is a credit. Hence, Malawians are not necessarily angry that Chakwera lied to them; they are disappointed that from now onwards, they cannot trust Chakwera because his promises are proving to be lies. The dude is fast becoming an excuse generating machine and a hypocrite to boot.

You know what? Rewind to 18 November 2018.

The day before, the now evicted President Peter Mutharika had just reshuffled his cabinet, and a fiery Chakwera climbed an anthill to deliver a sermon titled “Shame on you Mutharika!”

Verbatim, Chakwera’s harangue was as follows:

“Looking at Mutharika’s new cabinet, it is clear not only that Mutharika is no longer listening to good and free counsel, but also that he has no single regard for Malawians, much less the willingness to listen to their plight and undo their perils.

So, today, I direct this message to President Mutharika himself, as a last-ditch effort to get him to listen.

Mr President, this cabinet you have just created is a shameful disgrace and an unprecedented insult to all Malawians.

First of all, Mr President, your new cabinet is divisive. You have now made it clear by the lopsided regional distribution of cabinet seats that you are a tribal President, not a national one.

Besides, you clearly have no interest in appointing people on merit, leaving our nation groping in the darkness of mediocrity.

So, for the sake of all the tribes and regions of Malawi, I say shame on you.

Secondly, Mr President, your new cabinet is oppressive to our women of honour. You have proven this by appointing only three women to a cabinet of twenty in a nation that has more women than men.

This you have done even though you are supposed to be a “He for She Champion” and a Law Professor who knows that our laws require at least 40% of female representation in decision making. You are now thus a Professor of Law-breaking,” Chakwera thus pontificated, as if in Mutharika‘s shoes, he would do better.

Today, Chakwera has apparently learnt something he was unaware of when preaching to Mutharika. According to Chakwera, there are now few well-qualified women in Malawi.

Really Mr President?

Remind me, Mr President, don’t you have in your cabinet men and women, in fact, a whole family plus change, without first degrees or discernible accredited professional qualifications?

Which qualifications or merit are you now talking about?

Nietzsche was indeed right: blessed are the forgetful, for they get the better even of their blunders!

I hear you Blues’ Orators asking:

“Mapwiya, with this hypocrisy, what will become of us?”

Worry not, since each cloud has a silver lining, even the rank hypocrisy abundantly demonstrated by Chakwera in so short a time is a blessing: it is a timely warning that we should not expect much from him.

As for Chakwera, I have two requests:

Mr President,

1) Revisit the Note of Shame dated 18 November 2018 which you wrote as Leader of Opposition.

2) When done, ask yourself just one question: Shame on who?

The wise, said Marcus Porcius Cato, learn more from fools than fools from the wise.

By the way, now that Chakwera has realized that there are not many “qualified“ women around, when does he plan to apologize to Mutharika for the note of shame of November 2018?

Mr President, shame on you too.