Leader of Opposition in Parliament Kondwani Nankhumwa has torn into President Lazarus Chakwera for failing to address the problem of intermittent power supply which he says reached crisis level some months ago.
In a statement released on Tuesday August 23, Nankhumwa who is also Democratic Progressive Party vice president for the South said it is very strange that despite the problem becoming a national catastrophe, there has not been any action from the president.
Nankhumwa wondered why the intermittent power supply experienced over the past months did not warrant any action from the president such as the deployment of the Minister of Energy.
He also blamed Minister of Energy Ibrahim Matola for waiting for a directive from the President to hold meetings with the Heads of ESCOM and EGENCO to get to the bottom of the cause of the system shutdown that resulted in a nationwide blackout over the weekend.
Nankhumwa continued to say that the development clearly shows that President Chakwera is hugely detached from reality, and does not know the challenges that Malawians face on a daily basis, hence his silence on the power outages.
“Mr. President, the problem is not only what you call the system shutdown that resulted in a nation-wide blackout over the weekend. To imagine that the President had woken up to this fact over the weekend, shows that the country is on autopilot, and that he is totally disinterested in solving its problems,” said Nankhumwa in a statement.
The leader of opposition further reminded the president that during campaign Chakwera vowed to eradicate blackouts without excuses. He said it is sad that instead of walking his talk, Chakwera is busy blaming the previous regime.
He then urged President Chakwera to prioritize the suffering of Malawians at present and stop the tendency of presenting great speeches when nothing is happening on ground.
“Mr. President, the previous regime made its mistakes, but Malawians elected you to correct those mistakes. You cannot run away from your responsibility by scapegoating endlessly. What are you doing yourself?
“Mr President, your idea of solving Malawi’s problems starts and ends with speeches. Your speeches are truly great – no-one can take that away from you, but Malawians don’t eat speeches. Malawians employed you to work for Malawians. Mr President, please do what Malawians elected you for,” he added.
Nankhumwa also told president Chakwera that a lot is being lost with each passing day of inaction and as it stands, businesses that rely on electricity are on their death bed a thing which he said will derail the development process.
On damages at power generating sites caused by Cyclone Anna, Nankhumwa said he is fully aware of but says it would have been comforting to see that at least those who are supposed to work on the problem trying their best which he said is not the case.
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