By Tiyanjane Nandie Mambucha:
President Lazarus Chakwera on Friday delivered the State of National Address (SONA) outlining the progress made by his administration on the economy and social investment’s programmes.
Speaking at the state opening of the 50th session of Parliament at the Parliament building in Lilongwe, the president elaborated on progress made by his administration in areas of Finance , Energy, Reforms , Security, Corruption, Health, Education, Agriculture, Water and Sanitation , Justice, Tourism, and Transport and public works.
Chakwera admitted that Malawi’s economy is suffering as the inflation rate is not encouraging and the GDP is not expected to recover in the year 2023 .
He attributed the economic suffering to Malawi’s dependence on strategic foreign imports from countries that have been severely disrupted by war, Covid-19 and tight monetary policies.
“Our macroeconomic indicators signal that our economy is suffering from several vulnerabilities. It is simply unrealistic to not expect any adverse effects on our own economy. The blows from the global economy added on the local exogenous shocks within our context like pressure from servicing our mountain of debt and adverse weather conditions,’ said Chakwera.
The President said his administration has made some progress on actions and services to transform the economy and address the living conditions and poverty of many Malawians .
Chakwera highlighted on the progress made on projects and plans of governance reforms , social protection efforts, wealth and job creation .
‘The past two years my administration has sought to strike a balance between two equally important needs. The need to cushion the poorest and most vulnerable Malawians against the harshest blows of the global and local economic thunderstorms, and the need to lay foundation in restructuring the economy for transformation,’ said Chakwera.
On justice, the President appealed to the Judiciary to make speedy progress in completion of corruption cases as they do with other cases.
He further commended the office of the ACB for being truthful despite the impediments it has faced for the past two months.
‘The judiciary has impressed my administration on the completion rate of other cases, which is at 62% .However this is not similar with corruption cases , please show similar progress on such cases too. The bureau has continued to execute its mandate within a period which its Director General was variously impeded ‘ said Chakwera.
The SONA which was delivered under the theme delivering economic transformation and governance reform through sacrificial action and service excellence received mixed reactions from experts in various fields, Director General of the National Planning Commission, Dr. Thomas Munthali said it is a very encouraging statement, despite it still having the issues of broken systems not fixed.
In his comment, a Human Rights Advocate from the Centre for Human Rights and Rehabilitation (CHRR), Michael Kaiyatsa said the 2023 SONA is a mixed bag containing some things which Chakwera administration has delivered and some which the administration has failed.
‘We expected the President to give us an account on how he has fixed the broken and corrupt system as he promised Malawians during the last SONA. Other than that, we are happy that he has made good announcements like the removal of the expiry date on the Nation Identity cards , and the strides he has made in governance and health sectors, but I still feel a lot more needs to be done especially in supporting the ACB. ‘ Kaiyatsa said.
