BY FRYSON CHODZI
Forget about fixing the economy the MCP way. Those are talking blues of a person who is desperate. The only way and according to the person entrusted with the country’s purse is IMF
It’s coming to Town. Am not a prophet of doom but a realist. The coming in of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) might break everything in order for Malawi to qualify for support to be given .
Chakwera and the clique are caught between a rock and a hard surface. If they don’t get an IMF Extended Credit Facility (ECF) Malawi will be broke and economy will collapse. No two ways about it.
On the other hand, in order to get the ECF, Chakwera’s government will have to pay a price. The requirements for the ECF will entail abandoning or reviewing the welfare programs like AIP, Free water connectivity, the passport at 14,000, freeze on salary increase and stopping this global trotting which the administration has come fond of.
Now that would be interesting to watch especially that instead of being honest and realistic on the current state of the economy, we keep on parading misinformation that AIP is still here to stay and much cheaper than ever.
Pop the corn, get the soda, it’s gonna get interesting
Interestingly ECF removal was a decision Tonse chose on their own to show the world that they were not prepared to toe the line their predecessor followed but make a 360 degrees turnaround and do it the Tonse Alliance way. Initially they were forewarned by an IMF rep who, during their meeting next week, will simply turn the pages and refer to the notes he gathered a couple of months back. The IMF we all know may release their dollars but with strings attached and the disbursement will be in drip-drops following the fiscal indiscipline as displayed by the leadership and his ill-informed financial advisors. To make things worse the conditions that will be floated will heavily cause more hardships, ask Gondwe, Mwanamveka, Kabambe and company. All these globetrotting childishness has been documented since it begun and they even know the expenditure plus allowances used to the penny. No matter how you sugar-coat your defence by cheating that you have cut down on travels as if the world has no eyes and ears, then you must have something coming. Bvuto ndiloti mungophesa anthu oti akanachira m’zipatala mopanda mankhwala’mu. Koma ndiye zofuna, poti otiuza analipo ambiri-mbiri, koma a Malawi kuumilira mtunda opanda madzi; ndi izi timvano ili m’mutu.