By Rick Dzida
It is pathetic that the Chakwera and Tonse Alliance administration is taking Malawians for granted by deliberately propagating falsehood and lies.
This article therefore, aims at briefly outlining 50 lies and anomalies as perpetrated by the incumbent regime.
Last year, President Chakwera lied to the nation that he had suspended all domestic and foreign trips till March 2024 as part of following economic austerity measures.
Malawians were surprised a few days ago when he announced that he would attend an inaugural ceremony of the President of Democratic Republic of Congo.
For sure, President Chakwera could have delegated to cut down the costs.
Before his ascendancy to power, Dr. Lazarus Chakwera promised Malawians to resign if he failed to meet their aspirations within 2 years.
Three years down the line, President Chakwera has not resigned amid empty campaign promises and grave economic meltdown.
In 2020 during the swearing ceremony of newly appointed cabinet ministers, President Chakwera promised Malawians to reshuffle his cabinet after 6 months.
However, President Chakwera failed to reshuffle the cabinet for over a year even after the sudden death of two prominent cabinet ministers, Hon. Lingson Belekanyama and Hon. Sidik Mia.
President Chakwera promised a lean cabinet. Unfortunately, his first cabinet composed of 30 members with husbands and wives, brothers and sisters, and other appeased persons.
Hypocrisy is the order of the day for Chakwera’s government.
Soon after taking over power, President Chakwera and Saulos Chilima sent his daughter and his mother-in-law for diplomatic missions respectively.
This is the smacks of day-light and open practice of nepotism.
It is unfortunate that Chakwera’s government is replete with unprecedented corruption when they promised to crackdown on the same vice.
Currently, Vice President Saulos Chilima and other former cabinet ministers such as Newton Kambala and Kezzie Msukwa are answering corruption charges.
During the campaign period, Malawians were promised cheap and affordable fertiliser.
Much as we don’t expect prices of goods and services to remain the same but the prices of fertiliser and other farm inputs have exponentially gone high.
Instead of creating one million jobs within one year of Tonse Alliance administration as promised, over 600,000 Malawians lost their jobs during the said period.
Most Malawians are struggling to make ends meet under the tutelage of President Chakwera.
This is contrary to the promises that Malawi would be food secure to the extent that every Malawian would afford to have three meals a day.
With the sudden 44% Kwacha devaluation, education in Malawi has become a privilege only to the elicit.
Many students are dropping out of school due to non-payment of fees.
President Chakwera promised Malawians that he would improve the healthcare system once in power.
It is pathetic to note that there are no essential drugs in our public health facilities. Many Malawians have lost their lives and relatives due to treatable illnesses.
During the campaign period, Chakwera and his team were propagating lies that there was no COVID-19 in Malawi.
As a result, many Malawians died of COVID-19 since they interacted freely during campaign rallies.
The demise of Joyce Banda’s son and Chilima’s official secretary are notable examples.
It is pathetic that some elderly Malawians have died without accessing the promised government monthly stipend.These are the people who voted for Chakwera in anticipation of this promise.
Malawians were promised bullet trains that would be plying from Mzuzu through Lilongwe to Blantyre.
Much as we do not expect that all promises can be accomplished within years, the Tonse Alliance government is clueless on how this project will be implemented.
The highly touted cheap passports have not seen the light of the day.
Instead, the price of passports has exponentially gone up.
In addition, one needs to corrupt an officer for expeditious passport processing.
Malawians were duped that they would access driver licences that don’t expire.
On the contrary, the price of getting a driver licence is exorbitantly high.
Many Malawians are still paying for new water connection contrary to what was promised. Unfortunately, water tariffs have gone up too.
New electricity connection is not yet free.
Instead, the Electricity Supply of Malawi (ESCOM) raised electricity tariffs making the life of Malawians further harder.
Electricity loadshedding has become the order of the day.
Primary school education is not yet compulsory.
Although it is free, there are some additional expenses which pupils are obliged to pay.
In other words, primary school education is not entirely free.
The much-touted duty free week is not accessible to all Malawians.
It seems that it is staged to benefit a few individuals.
The Tonse Alliance promise of universal fertilizer subsidy meant that all farmers were supposed to be the end beneficiaries.
Reports on the ground indicate that a few farmers received subsidised fertiliser amid controversies that most suppliers or transport contractors are MCP diehards.
President Chakwera has not demonstrated servant leadership at all contrary to the campaign promises.
If Chakwera is a servant leader, why was he recently forced to stop over a funeral procession in Blantyre? Why didn’t Chakwera consider the plight of poor Malawians before devaluing the Kwacha?.
Prospering together as part of MCP Hi 5 slogan has proved to be a scam.
Frankly speaking, Malawians are not prospering together.
Chakwera and his Tonse Alliance gurus are accumulating a lot of wealth at the expense of poor Malawians whose means of living are getting harder and harder at the end of each day.
With rampant nepotism, appeasement policy, tribalism and regionalism practised by the Tonse Alliance regime in accessing opportunities, Malawians are not united contrary to MCP Hi 5 slogan.
It is true that regionalism has taken the centre stage under the tutelage of Reverend Dr. Lazarus Chakwera.
Most cabinet ministers, Principal Secretaries, Board Chairpersons and Chief Executive Officers of Statutory Corporations come from the Central region.
Megafarms have not been launched in most of the districts. Not even bare ground for megafarms has not been identified in all districts.
Chakwera government has been faulted for not being open and transparent. It is replete with secrets.
How can Chakwera hide a public sector reform report? Why was Chakwera government not transparent in exporting labour to a war-torn country, Israel?
There are times when President Chakwera flouted laid down procedures.
This is contrary to following rule of law as it was promised in MCP Hi 5 slogan.
Upon ascending to power, President Chakwera appointed John Biziwiki as the Acting Chief Executive Officer of the Marawi Revenue Authority (MRA).
The normal procedure was for President Chakwera to appoint the new acting Chief Executive Officer from within MRA organogram.
During the presidential swearing ceremony of President Chakwera in 2020, there were two venues planned for the function.
When Malawians queried Chakwera that two venues for same function wasted government resources, he promised them a financial report would be prepared and all Malawians would be availed with the same. Up to now, such a report has not seen the light of the day.
The Chief Executive Officer of the Malawi Energy Regulatory Authority (MERA), Mr. Henry Kachaje is still clinging to his job despite the fact that the Office of the Ombudsman found that he has a masters degree from a diploma mill.
Emphasis is made that recent sudden 44% Kwacha devaluation has escalated the prices of goods and services such that the cost of living has become unattainable.
Poor fiscal and monetary policies followed by Chakwera regime has plunged Malawi into an economic abyss.
It smacked of total insanity when Chakwera government cancelled the International monetary fund (IMF) credit facility clinched by the DPP regime only to apply for another one.
The Chakwera regime could have used the existing IMF facilities with a view of applying for another one after its expiry.
It is pathetic that President Chakwera changed the name of Phalombe district hospital to John Chilembwe Hospital.
If President Chakwera wanted to honour John Chilembwe, he could have built a national hospital in his name.
It is therefore vehemently stated that name changing of existing infrastructures is not a formidable development but a political gimmick.
In pursuant to nepotism and tribalism, President Chakwera is not ashamed to send his daughter to the United Kingdom embassy when she possesses academic qualifications from unaccredited university.
It is only during Chakwera’s regime when corruption in the judiciary has reached unprecedented levels.
Judges and Justices who are suspected of being involved in corruption are left scot free to preside over corruption cases.
It is therefore not surprising that corruption suspects such as Kezzie Msukwa have been granted court orders to restrain the Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) from prosecuting them.
The Speaker of the National Assembly is another thorn in the flesh as she is biased and political.
How can the Speaker Mrs. Catherine Gotani Hara take part in choosing the leader of opposition in parliament, Kondwani Nankhumwa?
The bad appeasement policy followed by President has diluted the quality of public delivery services.
The business-as-usual mentality has crippled Government Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).
Poor public service delivery has been exacerbated by high incidents of corrupt practices in Immigration, Road Traffic and Health government departments.
Selective justice is the order of the day for Chakwera’s government.
For instance, Vice President Saulos Chilima who is answering corruption charges is not the only culprit of bribery and corruption.
Some MCP diehards such as Eisenhower Mkaka, the Secretary General of the ruling MCP are being shielded from being prosecuted by ACB.
Hon. Mkaka is being suspected of receiving a bribery in the form of Mercedes-Benz from a British business tycoon, Zunneth Sattar.
Chakwera government continues to waste government resources to compensate victims of unfair dismissals and arrests.
According to the recent industrial court ruling, the former State House Press Officer, Brian Banda will be compensated with MK103 Million Kwacha for unfair dismissal.
Former minister of Agriculture, Joseph Mwanamveka has threatened to sue the Government after the High Court found him not guilty.
It is very pathetic that President Chakwera has exuded no visionary and transformative leadership.
President Chakwera’s laissez faire style of leadership leaves a lot to be desired.
No wonder most MDAs casually operate with the business-as-usual mentality because President Chakwera thinks that he is more like a traffic officer rather than the driver of the nation.
Chakwera government is well known for overspending government resources without sticking to the budget.
This is also the reason why our domestic and foreign debts have insanely and exponentially gone high.
The six-year tenure of office for Members of Parliament is unconstitutional. It is supposed to be a five- year term in accordance with the Malawi Constitution. Didn’t President Chakwera vow to defend the Malawi Constitution?
It is funny that it is during Chakwera regime that the same word ‘majority’ is being applied different to determine the winner of parliamentary and presidential elections which are conducted concurrently.
In conclusion, does President Chakwera have a political will to defend the Malawi Constitution? Has he shown any political will crackdown on rampant corruption and selective justice? Why is President Chakwera so silent on fulfilling campaign promises? Does he take Malawians for granted?
