CHAKWERA CLOCKS 100 DAYS

By Franklin Mtambalika

President Lazarus Chakwera says thirty-five priority areas have helped save Malawi from self-enrichment that characterized the former Democratic Progressive Party regime.

Chakwera highlighted the points on Monday during the Weekly Presidential brief marking One hundred days of Tonse Alliance government. 

The President said his main focus has been putting together a solid team to liberate Malawi from sinking in what he described as flooding waters.

Flanked by his vice Saulos Chilima, cabinet ministers and leaders of the Tonse Alliance, the president acknowledged the journey was not as easy as he thought, because he found a lot of mess that needed cleaning as soon as possible.

On the list of his achievements in the one hundred days in office, Chakwera firstly mentioned the appointment of his Thirty-One member cabinet, appointment of heads for all law enforcement agencies and appointment of boards for parastatals.

On children welfare, Dr Chakwera said for the period he has been in office, government has dissolved three thousand and ninety-eight child marriages with support from development partners. 

He however fell short of specifying the districts which have registered more cases and measures put in place to sustain the initiative.

On agriculture, he said government has approved the Affordable Input Program in which four point three million smallholder farmers will buy fertilizer at four thousand five hundred kwacha per fifty kilogram bag of fertilizer.

Speaking earlier, vice president Saulos Chilima highlighted progress of various reforms his office is championing to bring sanity in government machinery.

Chilima said as the Tonse government is celebrating tangible progress in the One hundred days, the period also marks the new dawn for Malawi after they sent parking what he described as “a gang of thugs”.

Chilima said the Public Sector reforms are aimed at improving service delivery in government Ministries, Departments and Agencies to restore public trust.

He also emphasized the need to employ a monitoring and evaluation approach to be able to track record of injected ideas for the betterment of Malawi.

Meanwhile the presidency has again asked for patience from Malawians saying change is a gradual process and therefore they should not expect a complete turn-around in a nick of time.

On lessons leant from the period under review, Chakwera said there is great need for mindset change among Malawians in the running of government affairs.