President Lazarus Chakwera Friday flew out of the country to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to attend the inauguration of that country’s leader Felix Tshisekedi and, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, hold one-on-one talks with Tshisekedi “as a matter of urgency”.
The trip has come about two months after Chakwera imposed a ban on public-funded international trips for himself and senior government officials including Cabinet ministers.
The ban was apparently among measures aimed at addressing Malawi’s economic distress which got exacerbated by a 44 percent devaluation of the Kwacha.
That time, Chakwera insisted he would not travel outside the country until the end of the current financial year, which is March this year.
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Now he is in the DRC and that situation cannot be underplayed like any other that does not matter much in the country’s discourse.
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The austerity measures were necessary because Malawi’s donor-dependent economy is on its knees.
Of course, we all know that the President had to show multilateral partners, particularly the International Monetary Fund, that he was willing to sacrifice some of his pleasures for the sake of the economy.
That is why it does not seem so strange that he has cut his own travel ban to fly to DRC.
After all, the tension that was there during the days he announced the measures has subsidised.
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Government spokesperson Moses Kunkuyu has attempted to justify the trip, saying it is necessary because it is about security.
Chances are that many more “absolutely necessary” trips will attract the attention of the President and he will not be able to ignore them.
The truth is that austerity measures do not work in Malawi.
We have all seen dozens of Cabinet ministers flying to faraway places to attend meetings which do not even fall in the “absolutely necessary” category.
They have stealthily flown out of the country, of course after seeking the President’s blessings, even when it was possible to bypass the trips in the midst of a troubled economy.
Of course, everyone seeking to travel outside the country will convince Chakwera that their trip is absolutely necessary; that is why the leeway, that the President could be personally approving the requests for international travel, was a scam.
The moment there is an allowance of some sort on the austerity measures and their relevant curbs, there will be instances of deception.
Saving a distressed economy requires serious measures, not some make-believe directives which are easily susceptible to abuse.
In fact, no austerity measures have really been respected in modern Malawi.
We have seen how directives that government vehicles should not be outside their stations outside certain times are ignored by everyone including the drivers themselves.
We have seen how bans on lakeshore conferences have been cast aside by ministries, departments and agencies.
All this is because there has never been any kind of seriousness from the topmost leadership.
The declaration that Chakwera has undertaken an “unscheduled trip” is not making things any better considering that there is evidence of all plans for the trip having been in place from way back.
Of course, there is something serious happening in DRC regarding the security situation there, according to several media reports.
In fact, Malawi has its soldiers in that country under a United Nations mission.
But fronting that security card does not really blur the fact that it was possible for the President not to travel to that country.
It is even strange that the so-called invitation by Tshisekedi has coincided with his inauguration which is set to take place today.
Well, in the larger scheme of things, the message we can get from the latest development on Chakwera’s travel ban is that such directives do not work in Malawi.
No one respects them, so there is no need to fool Malawians by announcing anything that will never materialise.
In this country, austerity measures are a farce and evidence abounds that they are often announced to pacify angry Malawians and concerned donors who cannot help but wonder why there is extravagance in the midst of great want.
We should all get used to the reality that no one is really interested in foregoing any opportunity that comes their way even if it means driving an economy to the chasm.
