President Lazarus Chakwera has expressed worry over the continued theft of public resources by a few greedy individuals in the country.
Chakwera was speaking in Mchinji where he addressed a development rally on Tuesday afternoon.
According to Chakwera theft of public resources has reached alarming levels that some government operations are being affected.
“Just some 2 days ago I had a meeting with the Board of Central Medical Stores trust on the status of drugs in the country. The Board Chair assured me that money for the procurement of drugs is available but the challenge is once these drugs are released to hospitals within 2 days you hear the hospital has run out of drugs. Honestly speaking this is not,” said Chakwera.
The Malawi leader said it is sad that some few people just want to enrich themselves at the expense of ordinary suffering Malawians.
According to Chakwera the spirit of stealing government resources is what has derailed development in the country for so long and the time has now come to put an end to that.
Meanwhile, the President has made a fresh assurance that no one will die of hunger in the country despite the challenges that characterized this year’s farming season.
“I want to assure you that no one will die of hunger in this country. This country has enough maize in stock to take us to the next harvest season. This morning I was at Kanengo to appreciate the maize status at the National Food Reserve Agency and I must say I am impressed with what I have seen,” said Chakwera.
Chakwera then took time to hit back at his critics who are accusing him of failing the country in the two years he has been in office.
“I know some of you are obsessed with telling lies, Some are deliberately ignoring the development projects that my government has initiated in the two years we have been in power but that negativity will not distract us as we focus on the vision 2063 agenda of developing this country,” said Chakwera attracting jeers from the crowd.
Speaking earlier, Agriculture Minister Lobin Lowe expressed disappointment with how grain trader ADMARC is discharging its duties and has since threatened to undertake unspecified action for ADMARC is start functioning properly again.
“We have been patient enough with ADMARC and at some time we will now have to ring the changes,” said Lowe.
Meanwhile, Lowe says the country has 62000 metric tonnes of maize at NFRA while ADMARC has 206 000 surpassing the 217 000 metric tonnes requirement for the country to be food sufficient.
