State House says it fully agrees with former President Peter Mutharika that the economy has slowed down and that there is a lot of suffering among Malawians.
State House Director of Communications Sean Kampondeni made the remarks at the State House brief held at Kamuzu Palace in Lilongwe this morning.
Mutharika yesterday attacked President Lazarus Chakwera, saying the president has no policy direction, the economy is hurting Malawians and people are failing to afford basic living.
According to Mutharika, in one year under the Tonse Alliance the economy has drastically worsened with a critical shortage of forex, plummeting revenue, over-expenditure, excessive local borrowing and a falling Malawi Kwacha.
In his response, Kampondeni admitted that Mutharika was right in his assessment on matters of the economy under the Chakwera administration.
Kampondeni noted that the economy has indeed slowed down, that thousands of jobs have been created which are not enough for a country with over 4 million unemployed young people and that there is a lot of suffering that needs to be addressed.
He however, argued that Malawians are suffering because of the mess which Chakwera inherited from Mutharika. According to Kampondeni, Chakwera inherited a K4 trillion debt which he now has to resolve.
“Malawians are suffering because the country was in a state of economic disrepair and the President and the Vice President are working around the clock to address these issues that were created by the Mutharika administration,” he said.
On Mutharika’s claims that Chakwera’s government has no policy direction, Kampondeni said Chakwera is wondering where Mutharika has been since he (Chakwera) has given policy directions on several issues.
Kampondeni mentioned policy directions on Covid-19 pandemic, mining and public sector reforms. He added that Chakwera also presented a State of the Nation Address in Parliament which contained policy direction covering four years.
“We do not know where the former president was when these public directions were being made. We ask the former president to open his eyes and pay attention since policy direction is being given and being implemented,” said Kampondeni.
