DPP describes Chakwera’s SONA as empty

Opposition Democratic Progressive Party ( DPP) has responded to the State of the Nation Address by President Dr. Lazarus Chakwera saying that it has failed to tackle major issues affecting the majority of poor Malawians.

According to a statement released by the party signed by its Spokesperson, Shadric Namalomba, MP, the President’s SONA is empty as it has no solutions and direction as to how the country will get out of its current quagmire with the 2022/23 Fiscal year been an “Annus Horribis” for the majority of Malawians as acknowledged by the President himself.

“Indeed, the nation is at a critical point which needs a lot of sacrifices to move forward, however, the SONA is empty on what sacrifices need to be made,” Namalomba said.

He added that there is no sacrifice coming from the executive which means that the executive needs the poor to sacrifice more while they continue enriching themselves through the corrupt path.

“While the President would like to blame the global economy challenges such as war in Ukraine and Covid-19 for the poor performance of the economy, the truth is the economy has been mismanaged with the mismanagement in the monetary policy, the mismanagement in the fiscal policy and the misalignment in the foreign exchange policy has taken the economy where it is today,” he explained.

On Monetary Policy, the DPP’s six paged response said that the tightened Monetary Policy being pursued by this Government has not yielded the desired results of lowering inflation and preserving value of the Kwacha but instead, inflation continues to rise and the kwacha is taking a beating from other foreign currencies leading to increased cost of living and suffering amongst Malawians.

On Fiscal Performance Namalomba said “continued wanton expenditure and lack of direction and seriousness on the part of government has led to huge budget deficits of 7.1% and it is obvious that the Government has no intention to restructure debt and has not put in place mechanisms to stop wanton expenditure.”

Further, the statement highlighted on Agriculture sector describing it as a poor tobacco season outlook that has worsened the import cover as the projected forex earnings from Tobacco continue to dwindle which is contrary to one’s expectation that this Government would be Pro-Agriculture.

“So, painfully for all Malawians, the message we share with you is that your sufferings are far from over, ” Namalomba said in conclusion to their response.

President Chakwera delivered the SONA on 17th February, 2023 with the theme,” Delivering Economic Transformation and Governance Reform through Sacrificial Action and Service Excellence.