President Professor Arthur Peter Mutharika on Wednesday turned the official commissioning of 55 megawatts diesel power generators at Escom Power Station in Chichiri, Blantyre to a political battle field by attacking leader of the main opposition Malawi Congress Party (MCP) Dr. Lazarus Chakwera.

In his speech Mutharika said his critics doubted him when he came up with a plan of installing diesel generators to curb the ongoing power crisis.

“The foul-mouthed politician is a liar. I will not mention him. You know him. I will not answer him today but one day I will. He has been saying that we won’t do this,” a visibly agitated Mutharika said amid ululation and drum beating.

Turning to the event Mutharika assured Malawians that energy problems rocking the country “will end soon”.

“We want to transform the economy by creating a vibrant private sector that can create jobs. The only missing link was energy. I can say without fear of contradiction that Malawi’s power shortage is coming to an end very soon. This is the beginning of the end of poverty,” he said.

Minister of Energy, Mining and Natural Resources, Aggrey Masi said the gensets will be running for six hours in a day.