Kuwait - Malawi’s President Joyce Banda would push ahead with rooting out corruption even if it spoilt her chances of returning to office after elections in May next year, she said this week.
Foreign donors, including the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the British government, have suspended aid that finances about 40 percent of the nation’s budget after reports of rampant corruption and abuse of public funds. The scandal, dubbed “Cashgate” by local papers, led Banda to dissolve her cabinet on October 10 and appoint international investigators to probe the allegations.
“This is my fight, this is our fight as a nation, as Malawians,” Banda said in an interview in Kuwait after attending an Arab-Africa summit. “We intend to implement it with or without donors because it’s our nation, our people that suffer as a result. This is a cancer.”
The scandal and suspension of aid threaten to derail an economic revival that has been under way since last year when Banda succeeded Bingu wa Mutharika, who died in office last April. The IMF said it had delayed the disbursement of $20 million (R203m) to Malawi “until the fiscal situation could be clarified and necessary corrective measures put in place.”
Economic growth would probably be curtailed to 5 percent this year from an earlier forecast of 5.8 percent, while inflation was projected to average 28.5 percent, she said.
In May next year, Banda and her People’s Party will contest presidential, parliamentary and local government elections against Peter Mutharika’s main opposition Democratic Progressive Party, the United Democratic Front and the Malawi Congress Party.
“I have been told by my colleagues that I’m out of my mind to be tackling corruption six months before elections,” she said. “I told them I’m leaving it in their hands. If I don’t go back to State House because I was trying to do this, that’s fine. I’ve placed this before my political career.”
Banda said about 30 percent of the nation’s resources were being stolen through corruption. The Cashgate scandal had led authorities to arrest 68 people, open 18 court cases, freeze 33 bank accounts and conduct a forensic audit, she said. “Whoever takes over must continue this fight. If we don’t, Malawi shall remain where it is.”
Malawi is Africa’s top exporter of burley tobacco, a low- grade variety of the crop. Limbe Leaf Tobacco, a unit of US-based Universal, Alliance One International and Japan Tobacco are among the buyers. About half the 15 million population live on less than $1 a day, the IMF says.
Malawi’s kwacha has slumped 18 percent against the dollar this year, making it the worst-performing African currency after the Sudanese pound. It fell 1.5 percent to 410 to the dollar in Lilongwe yesterday morning. – Bloomberg