On Monday, th outspoken Legislator for Blantyre City South-East Sameer Suleman turned the Malawi National Assembly into a Mathematics classroom when he narrowed the K67.3 billion allocation to State House down to a minute and second consumption.
He was commenting on the presented budget where he highlighted the vast disparity between the government’s spending on State House and the struggles faced by ordinary Malawians. He demanded to know how the government could justify such extravagance when the country is grappling with shortages of food and medicine, high prices of essential commodities, and poor road conditions.
“K67.3 billion translates to K5,608,333,000 per month, it also translates to K186,944,000 per day. State House is taking K42, 062, 693 per hour, it also translates to K702,000 per second,” Suleman said.
“Is our country that rich? Do we have that money that we can give to our President, K702,000 per second?”
Suleman emphasized that President Lazarus Chakwera’s leadership should demonstrate solidarity with Malawians by showing that they too are affected by the country’s economic hardships, rather than perpetuating a culture of luxury and excess.
“None of them can volunteer to even get his salary deducted. They are busy chewing taxpayers’ money, but they cannot plan austerity measures.”
He also demanded answers from the Minister of Finance Simplex Chithyola Banda over K1 trillion collected from smallholder farmers over the past four years. Suleman said government had been collecting 15,000 kwachas per fertilizer bag and additional contributions for goat recipients which he alleges has gone unaccounted for.
