Chakwera’s throbbing headache

President Lazarus Chakwera is a troubled man watching the country sink into deeper depths of poverty and hardship. All macro-economic policies are either misfiring or backfiring. His government’s popularity is also on a downhill slide, according to the recent Afro-barometer report.

Yet on 16 September, Malawians are going to decide whether to retain or replace him. The 84-year-old former president Peter Mutharika is eying for a second coming, having lost to Chakwera by 2.6 million votes against his 1.7 million votes in the 2020 presidential elections re-run.

To prop up dwindling foreign reserves, since 2020 the Malawi kwacha has lost its value three times, making all imports expensive and triggering a spike in prices of basic goods. In the last four months of 2024, Malawians braved arduous fuel queues at pump stations across the country.

The situation hasn’t improved yet.

On November 27, 2024, president Chakwera addressed the nation, outlining a tranche of measures to deal with fuel shortages, hunger and political violence. He also hinted on expenditure cuts.

But this wasn’t the first time president Chakwera announced public spending cuts. In 2023, he suspended international travel for himself and his government in a bid to save money.

This followed a 44 percent devaluation of the kwacha, a desperate move to secure a loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to boost the ailing economy, The Nation reported on November 16 that year. 

Chakwera also ordered all cabinet ministers who were abroad to return home, in addition to cutting top government officials’ fuel entitlement by 50 percent. Similar austerity measures were announced during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 but had limited impact as they were not strictly enforced.

Fast forward to 2025, the merry-go-round spins. Like Peter Tosh’s line in Maga Dog nuances, Malawians have now jumped from frying pan into the fire. Prices of essentials are beyond the reach of the ordinary and the voices of desperation are too loud in public spaces and social media.  

Recently, the World Bank in its Malawi Economic Monitor (MEM) assessment, painted a gloomy picture; saying government’s excesses in public spending and borrowing makes Malawi’s fiscal management out of touch in the context of the Extended Credit Facility (ECF) by the IMF.

To save his face, president Chakwera ought not to introduce new or additional cost-cutting measures. No, enough of that Mr. president. Rather, he must ensure the existing measures are enforced and later on inform the nation how we have saved.

Of course, he must be credited for not flying to attend two SADC emergency summits in Zimbabwe and Tanzania and the African Union Summit in Addis Ababa Ethiopian and instead delegated his Foreign Minister Nancy Tembo, his has been long overdue.

The reason we have dwindling foreign reserves is partly due to his appetite for travelling outside. Had he been delegating say for instance two years ago when critics called him out on his excesses, perhaps the situation wouldn’t be as it is as we speak.

Also, president Chakwera must ensure his cabinet ministers as well as top government officials exercise prudence. His vice Micheal Usi has seen places such as public markets eating dry fish or dancing m’bwiza, a local performed by the Yao people.

You don’t need to go to such to understand people’s plight, as he has always argued. No, the problems of Malawians are known to everyone— hunger and shrinking buying power.

On a positive note, however, Labor Minister Vitumbiko Mumba must be lauded for his crusade on the workers’ plight in industries. But it should just be whipping up insolent companies, rather the government should also ensure it provides a conducive environment for industries.

Look, it must ensure there’s uninterrupted electricity supply, availability of foreign currency to help import raw materials for production as well as remove bureaucratic sets in business registration and other government services for industries.

Without taking these steps, telling companies and industries to comply with rules and regulations is good as a father instructing his children not to come home late in the night, yet he comes in the wee hours—drunk!

The point is that the government must do its part before harassing companies. These are the companies and industries driving the economy and if they are left in the cold, they certainly shut down and lay off workers.

It’s on record that several companies have shut down due to, among other things, the delinquent business environment necessitated by the devaluation of the Kwacha as well as other fiscal management issues by the government.

So, between now and September 16, this is the mind-boggling headache president Chakwera has to deal with. The tranquillizers are all within his reach. All he needs to do is take them religiously as prescribed by the doctors—in this case, economists as well as his critics. 

Or else, face the exit door.