DPP trashes JB’s speech
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) on Monday trashed the President’s State Opening Address to the 44th Session of the National Assembly, describing it as empty rhetoric and self-glorification that lacked acknowledgement of the current suffering of Malawians.
DPP’s response was in sharp contrast to that of the main opposition Malawi Congress Party (MCP), given earlier, which systematically avoided to directly attack the Joyce Banda administration,
Ironically, MCP president John Tembo, who is also Leader of the Opposition in Parliament, threw away his prepared scathing speech against the President and instead dwelt much on reminding the House that the current economic hardships were created by the previous DPP administration.
But leader of DPP in the House, George Chaponda, had no kind words for the President’s State Opening Address delivered on Friday.
He said: “In this speech, there is lack of vision. The nation expected, for instance, that she [the President] would deal with the issue of floatation of the kwacha and other topical issues which require immediate intervention as well as long-term perspective.”
Comparing the Friday speech to the State of the Nation Address Banda delivered in the House last May, Chaponda said the previous speech, which he claimed was a copycat of the late president Bingu wa Mutharika’s vision, had “an element of vision… even though much of what she promised to do was never delivered.”
He also questioned the President’s sentiments that the Economic Recovery Plan (ERP) has scored successes, saying the ERP was just subjecting people to even more hardships with wages and salaries losing value almost daily due to the floatation of the kwacha.
Chaponda also questioned the current increase of the Farm Input Subsidy Programme (Fisp) budget from K40.8 billion to K57 billion following an announced increase of beneficiaries from the initial 1.5 million.
Said Chaponda: “While we appreciate the increased number of beneficiaries, in the interest of transparency, the Head of State would have told us who are those extra beneficiaries, who identified the beneficiaries and who approved the additional fund.”
Tembo, on the other hand, urged government to do away with Fisp and adopt across-the-board affordable prices for fertiliser, arguing that poor Malawians are not benefiting from the programme.
Commenting on the current state of affairs in the country, Tembo said the Joyce Banda administration started well, but the progress has been destructed by the inclusion of the same people who spoiled the previous DPP government and he urged Banda to clean up the system and all the structures.
On the country’s economic challenges, he said the problems started long time before the President administration came in, but cautioned that the current administration should not repeat similar mistakes that would plunge the country into problems again.
Tembo said the problem with the current administration was that it is a mixture of good and bad people.
