President Lazarus Chakwera’s trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has ignited questions on whether he was serious when he declared he would not travel outside the country until the end of the current fiscal year.
On November 15 last year, Chakwera announced a series of measures aimed at addressing Malawi’s economic distress, including a ban on all public-funded international trips for himself, Cabinet ministers and other senior government officials.
He said the ban would only be set aside if senior government officials justified why it was “absolutely necessary for them to travel”.
Today, the President is travelling to DRC to attend the inauguration ceremony of that country’s leader Felix Tshisekedi Tshilombo, who has won a second term, and to hold one-on-one talks with him, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
“His Excellency Dr Chakwera has had to temporarily suspend his programme of public engagements in the Southern Region to undertake this unscheduled trip to Kinshasa, at the behest of His Excellency Mr Tshisekedi Tshilombo, who has invited President Chakwera to hold urgent in-person talks with him on regional security matters that affect Malawi Defence Force troops currently deployed in peacekeeping activities in eastern DRC,” the ministry’s statement reads.
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But Human Rights Defenders Coalition (HRDC) Chairperson Gift Trapence and Centre for Social Accountability and Transparency Executive Director Willy Kambwandira have accused the President of not being serious about the austerity measures he announced.
Trapence said the measures were supposed to redirect the country’s economy and wondered whether Chakwera has real justification for the trip.
“Of course, HRDC understands that the President issued the freeze not for all foreign trips since some of the trips would be deemed necessary.
“It is our hope that the President will be able explain to Malawians how important the trip is and its economic value to Malawi,” he said.
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On his part, Kambwandira said he was not surprised that the President had gone against his own words.
“He has never been serious about the austerity measures and we are not surprised that ministries, departments and agencies themselves are not implementing them.
“The President has set a bad precedent by failing to follow his own rules. When the President breaks his own rules, it is difficult for others to follow them, especially on austerity,” Kambwandira said.
But in justifying the trip, government spokesperson Moses Kunkuyu reiterated the Foreign Affairs Ministry’s assertion that the matters for which Chakwera is travelling to DRC are urgent.
“Only those in national security circles will understand,” Kunkuyu said.
