Former President Peter Mutharika has attacked President Lazarus Chakwera, saying the president is failing to govern the country and his poor policies have led to high cost of living.
Mutharika made the remarks during a press briefing held at his house in Mangochi.
The former Malawi president said there is an economic slowdown under Chakwera and Malawians are failing to buy basic needs due to rise in prices of goods while the government is over-spending and borrowing a lot of money.
He said “The economy has drastically worsened with a critical shortage of forex, plummeting revenue, over-expenditur
He added that Chakwera does not have interest to develop Malawi and his administration has not come up with any plans to develop the country after one year in power.
According to Mutharika, the Tonse Government is only completing projects which were initiated by the Democratic Progressive Party administration.
“They have not implemented a single project and there is no direction in the country. I think any person would agree including themselves if they are honest,” said Mutharika.
Asked to rate Chakwera’s performance in his first year as president, Mutharika said he cannot rate the president because his administration has done nothing so far.
“There is nothing they have done for me to rate them; may be after six months I will be able to rate them. So, let’s wait for them to implement their own projects first,” said Mutharika.
Mutharika then stated that he is ready to provide advice to the president if Chakwera asks for the advice.
He, however, labelled Chakwera king of thieves, claiming that K23 billion has been stolen under the Tonse Alliance administration.
“The Tonse Government accused the DPP of theft. But up to this day, the Government cannot quote any amount of money which the DPP Government and its officials stole from Treasury. In less than one year however, everyone knows that Dr Lazarus Chakwera, the MCP and their Tonse Government have stolen K23 billion that was intended to save Malawian lives from the COVID-19 pandemic. This K23 billion does not include other corrupt transactions and systematic plunder outside the COVID funds. Malawians now know who the real thieves are in this country,” said Mutharika
Mutharika also described Chakwera as an illegitimate president who came to power following a judicial coup. According to Mutharika, he (Mutharika) won the presidential elections in 2019 but his victory was stolen by the courts.
He said: “Chakwera won the Presidency because of a judicial coup. The court agreed that there was no rigging of elections but they proceeded to nullify my win. There was a conspiracy against my administration.”
