By Aisha Amidu
Lilongwe, September 10, Mana: Opposition Parties in Parliament have claimed that a lot was missing in the State of National Address (SONA) as expected.
While hailing the development that the previous regime managed to cool down Members of Parliament (MPs) from opposition side said the SONA has missed a lot of things which were promised in the Tonse Alliance Manifesto’s.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) MP for Mangochi Central Constituency, Victoria Kingston said what the SONA articulated is contrary to what was happening on the ground and what was contained in their Manifesto.
“Tonse Manifesto’s clearly explained that it will offer 1 million jobs to the youth to be productive yet we have seen old and retired people occupying several positions in the government,” she said.
Kingston said the greater number of the country’s population is comprised the youth who have been cheated with the Tonse manifesto of 1 million jobs yet it has only taken a small portion which is opposite to what was promised.
“We have a lot of youth who have gone further with their studies and those that are qualified to occupy such positions but the administration have thought it wise to employ retired people, sooner or later robbery cases will be at an alarming rate as these youth will have nothing productive in their lives,” She added.
MP for Phalombe North East, Dennis Phiri said the SONA lacked clear deliverance as to what was estimated.
He said that they are a lot of things which were promised and the same is still happening up date, he mentioned of free water and connection fee, reduction of passports fee to K 14 000 just to name a few.
“Malawians are still waiting for the cheap fertilizer not the one which will target a small scale of people as Malawi’s economy relies on farming,” he said.
Culturally those from government benches hailed the SONA and said the TONSE fruits might seem impossible since the opposition failed to fulfill the time they were ruling.
Lilongwe Msozi South MP, Liana Chapota said the new dawn has come and this would be delivered the way it was presented in the SONA.
“Malawians should patiently wait for the fruits of Tonse Alliance government, it might seem that many projects are delaying and that is because the previous squandered the allocated resources for various projects,” she said.
Parliament is meeting for the 49th session and on Friday, September 11, 2020 Minister of Finance Presented the 2020/ 2021 National Budget.
