Malawi: Ministers’ pay hike shot down

MALAWIAN President Peter Mutharika had shot down a proposal to hike cabinet ministers’ pay to almost triple his own salary, a spokesman said yesterday, amid austerity measures following foreign aid flight. The cabinet secretary had asked for a sixfold increase of the 20 ministers’ salaries to $8 800 (R94 000) a month to cover the higher cost of living, according to presidential spokesman Frederick Ndala. But Mutharika “finds it unethical to raise ministers’ salaries when the cost of living is not only high for them, but for every Malawian”, Ndala said. – Sapa-AFP