Malawi economic woes created by greedy politicians- Atupele

Malawi’s opposition United Democratic Front (UDF) president Atupele Muluzi says the country needs new leadership to bail it out of the current economic hardships created by selfish politicians.

The UDF leader observed that political leaders take pride in trumpeting Malawi as a poor country when in fact it has rich resources that are wrongly managed.

Muluzi told thousands of enthusiastic crowds he addressed Tuesday during a whistle stop tour in Central Region districts of Ntcheu and Dedza.

“If we are such a poor country how come some people are able to steal billions of public money?” queried the youthful opposition leader apparently connecting to the ‘cashgate’ corruption scandal rocking the Joyce Banda administration.

“The major problem is that those we put in power are not there to serve people but achieve their personal gains,” said Atupele.

He said that was the very reason some political leaders change political parties at will and warned such characters would have no space in the next UDF administration to put in power after the May 20 polls.

“We need leaders that are prepared to serve the people with integrity and not opportunists,” he stressed.

“ I did not come from nowhere, I have been fighting this battle since the time of DPP’s [Democratic Progressive Party] bad governance,” challenged the 35-year-old presidential aspirant.

He said the battle he was fighting was not about him as Atupele but to bring economic change to the country.

Touching on agriculture, the son of retired Malawi’s first multiparty president  – Bakili Muluzi – bemoaned the mismanagement of the Fertilizer Subsidy Programme which he observed was benefiting a few individuals through corruption.

Muluzi reminded Malawians that what started as a good programme suited to transform the country’s food levels had been infested with corruption and general mismanagement and promised Malawians that the next UDF government would replace it with a universal subsidy programme to benefit every Malawian.

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