By Vincent Gunde
An Associate Professor in Economics at the Malawi University of Business and Applied Sciences (MUBAS) Betchani Tchereni, has called for reports on the austerity measures announced by President Dr. Lazarus Chakwera to be available to the citizens from January, 2024 so that Malawians can appreciate the progress of the measures.
Tchereni observes that some time back, President Chakwera announced the same austerity measures so that money saved be channeled to equally important projects but to this day, there is no such report.
He said he tried to follow-up on the report but some junior officers after knowing that the screws and nuts have been made tight, they started sabotaging the government by threatening him to close his big mouth.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with Times Television anchored by Brian Banda on Saturday evening, Tchereni said the report on the austerity measures is very important as this will show how much money in forex has been saved by the government.
Tchereni observed that announcing the austerity measures some of which are stopping global trotting by the President and his Ministers up to March, 2024 is good news to the country but the chorus is on action and implementation.
He asked President Chakwera to take personal responsibility taking a whip by himself for all to implement the measures and Minister of Finance Simplex Chithyola Banda not to allow fellow Ministers to dictate to him on the importance of attending meetings and seminars but to delegate.
The Economist said he is optimistic that Malawi cannot follow the path of Zimbabwe where it was declared bankrupt advising Minister of Agriculture Sam Kawale and Minister of Mining Monica Chayang’anamuno not to wear suits but to produce food and resources for economic stability in Malawi.
The academic appealed to President Chakwera and Chithyola Banda that time to make sure that Principal Secretaries are not abusing resources is now, saying all have a duty to accept and not one coming that this is important.
Tchereni said Zambia faced the same path in economy like Malawi, they knock-off the zeroes on their currency, worked on their energies by empowering young people to be industrious, buying machines for making soap, cooking oil, yoghurt, their economy started to pick-up and become strong.
“We should all work on the economy by being productive, success is not in politics, young people must not be made to take politics for their successes, they should not find time to be in politics,” said Tchereni.
He called upon young people to be productive and stop being abused by a political party in government and advising government to stop financing things that are not productive for the austerity measures announced by President Chakwera to bear fruits.
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