Development partners and other stakeholders have said they expect President Lazarus Chakwera, in his State of the Nation Address (Sona) today, to explain how he intends to tackle corruption.

The President is set to deliver the address at the opening of the Fifth Meeting in the 49th Session of Parliament which is also a budget meeting, in the capital, Lilongwe. In interviews, the stakeholders said there are a number of challenges facing the nation, ranging from disastrous floods, corruption allegations, the ailing economy and high cost of living to which Malawians expect solutions.

Will deliver a state of the nation address in Parliament today

Ahead of this address various stakeholders have shared their views on what they want to hear from the President.

The US Embassy in Malawi wants to hear the President talk more about the fight against corruption. The US is a key development partner for Malawi.

In a written response, United States Embassy public affairs officer Namita Biggins said they look forward to hearing President Chakwera’s reflection on the previous year and his administration’s priorities for the year ahead.

“As we said last week, we welcome the bold steps President Chakwera recently announced to further his administration’s fight against corruption in Malawi. We look forward to hearing President Chakwera’s reflection on the previous year and his administration’s priorities for the year ahead,” the envoy said.

Biggins said the United States will continue to partner with the government and people of Malawi to address the two countries’ common challenges and seek a better, healthier, and more prosperous future for both States.

Trapence: He must address
issue of cost of living

However, quasi-religious grouping, the Public Affairs Committee (PAC) says with the current negative public perception on corruption, the address today is an opportunity for the President to spell out a strategy to deal with the vice.

In an interview on Wednesday, PAC spokesperson Gilford Matonga said today ’s address is an opportunity to assure Malawians that Chakwera is ready to tackle corruption “even where some of his senior officials are implicated”.

He said: “The address today offers the President an opportunity to talk about serious steps in addressing corruption, which go beyond lipstick.

“It is not enough to increase funding to institutions that are key in the fight against corruption when the same is not easily accessed or disbursed to the institutions for smooth operations.”

Matonga further said PAC expects the President’s speech to outline a convincing plan that will bail out Malawians from economic hardships they are currently facing due to the rising cost of living.

“The cost of living has really gone up and we look forward to hearing concrete steps to address this issue.

“Malawians are suffering and the leadership has acknowledged this fact, but what is worrying is that the Executive does not seem willing to share the pain with the rest of the citizens,” he said.

Matonga said PAC is also concerned that the President did not act on calls for a lean Cabinet.

“The size of the Cabinet is not in line with the economy. We thought it should have been lean but it appears politicians have their own reality of the state of the economy,” he said.

On his part, Human Rights Defenders Coalition ( H R D C ) n a t i o n a l chairperson Gift Trapence said the President must set a tone to have a budget that is both pro-poor and developmental.

He said he expects an outline of strategic sectoral infrastructure developments that will be undertaken in the next fiscal year that have the potential to improve the state of the economy.

Trapence said: “We expect them to address the issue of cost of living, but more importantly, include some development projects such as strategic roads, railway lines that connect Malawi to other countries for ease of doing business.

“We believe if we have these projects that will help grow the economy, we are likely to improve the living conditions of many Malawians.”

UDF President Atupele Muluzi, who in the June 2020 Fresh Presidential Election paired with Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) candidate Peter Mutharika, said he also expects a strong statement on corruption.

He said the current allegations against some senior members of the Tonse administration undermine Malawi’s credibility.

Muluzi said: “The impact of recent allegations of corruption in government undermines our financial standing internationally, especially with our development partners, further damaging our credibility, commerce and industry.

“It further weakens our ability to develop our country and to mobilise resources to deal with emerging threats such us Tropical Storm Ana.”

For their part, Economics Association of Malawi (Ecama) said they are looking forward to a presidential speech that provides a clear roadmap on how the administration plans to turn around the economy.

Ecama executive director Frank Chikuta said currently Malawi is beset with miseries ranging from high cost of living and inflation made worse by Covid-19. “Generally, we look forward to a policy statement that addresses economic challenges facing the country and a policy that is aligned to Malawi 2063, ” he said.

The post Will Lazarus rise today? appeared first on The Nation Online.