Goodall Gondwe not in cabinet for his own interests

Newly appointed Malawi Economic Development Minister Goodal Gondwe says he has not joined the cabinet to seek protection on his alleged corrupt practices in the former Mutharika administration.

Gondwe was accused of corruptly awarding contracts to foreign suppliers in the 2005 fertilizer subsidy programme.

“No, that is not the issue. There is no protection to seek. I think they (Anti Corruption Bureau) did a complete job on me and it’s now its six years without being taking me to court so I don’t think I did any wrong,” said Mr. Gondwe.

“All I did was that I sped up the process for the fertilizer to arrive early because I was responsible for the program (subsidy) in 2005. There are some rules that will not allow you to move fast so I jumped those rules in the interest of the people….without that there would have been massive famine”.

He also denied that he was among the top former ruling DPP officials who plotted a coup after the death of president Bingu wa Mutharika in April this year.

“There was nothing of sort. There was no plan to swear in Professor Peter Mutharika or to take over government. Some people wanted to be holier than the Pope so they said all sorts of things to gain favors,” he said.

The new Economic Development Minister then stressed that he has not joined the People’s Party but only accepted to work as Minister to help fix the economy.

“I want to emphasize this. I have not joined any party. We sat face to face with President Joyce Banda and agreed that I am joining to work with government and nothing to do with party politics,” said Gondwe.

On the Economic Recovery Plan he said he believed in the plan and that with some fine tuning he will see to it that impact is felt on the people.

“The only problem is that it was not well explained to the people but I believe in the document and I am sure within the 18 month framework we will have achieved something,” he said. “We are not the only ones. In Tanzania the same scenario happened after they devalued their currency so we will come out of this”.

Mr. Gondwe, credited for economic successes during late President Mutharika’s regime, also backed government decision to devalue and float the kwacha against the US dollar.

“But I think the kwacha should be floated up to sometime but not leave it open for a long time,” he cautioned.