A young politician who is also spokesperson of Umodzi Party has applauded government for introducing initiatives aimed to create employment for young people.
The politician, 25-year-old Pemphero Mphande, praised government for allocating 9 billion kwacha to youth employment programmes which will be expected to see about 15,000 youth getting employed.
“This is commendable yet questionable. When did DPP realise the importance of this and how did it suddenly become important?” said Mphande.
In the 2018/2019 national budget presented in Parliament by finance minister Goodall Gondwe, government has included a K4.8 billion allocation for youth programmes aimed to reduce youth unemployment that the country is currently experiencing.
Government has also introduced a tree planting programme that is expected to employ 10,000 youths.
The programme which has been allocated K5 billion will see young people working in groups, planting and taking care of trees for a period of three years.
Mphande however said that is one of the few positive aspects of the budget since the budget is not showing other signs of change or innovation in due course.
He said it is rather a maintenance budget to keep the country going and people should expect business as usual but with more blackouts and more debts.
Mphande who is a shadow MP for Blantyre City South called the budget “blame games, debt deficits and corruption 2018/2019 budget.”
“The budget statement delivered by Gondwe can hypothetically easily be termed as ‘now that we have done this much, please give us another chance to do this much’. In reality, DPP and APM are telling Malawians that their first phase in the 5 years was to clean the mess which [former president] Joyce Banda left.
“In short this budget doesn’t usher in change or innovation; it is a maintenance budget to keep the country going. We should expect business as usual, more blackouts, debts and simply no change,” Mphande told Malawi24.
