President Dr. Lazarus Chakwera has defended his recent State of the Nation Address (SONA) against opposition accusations of falsehoods, insisting that neither he nor his ministers lied to Malawians.
Speaking during the Presidential Question Time in Parliament, Chakwera dismissed the allegations as part of a longstanding trend of political false accusations. He acknowledged that approximately two percent of the data in his address contained errors but clarified these were unintentional mistakes made by a team of five technocrats during data transfer.
He emphasized that despite the SONA involving over 75 experts and multiple verification stages, human error remains possible but deliberate deception is not. The team leader responsible for the errors has since been dismissed.
Chakwera challenged the Leader of Opposition to withdraw the accusations, noting that he had already retracted the incorrect data from the official record. He also pointed out inconsistencies within the opposition, highlighting that some opposition MPs had acknowledged the development projects mentioned in the SONA, contradicting their leader’s claims.
Addressing pressing national issues, the President identified hunger and rising commodity prices as the primary challenges facing Malawians. He accused some traders, allegedly working with an opposition party, of deliberately inflating prices to cause hardship for political gain.
“Their plot to overthrow my government through an illegal hyperinflation of prices will not succeed. My government will take tough and swift action against the perpetrators,” Chakwera declared.
To combat the crisis, he announced the immediate appointment of Engineer Vitumbiko Mumba as the new Minister of Trade and Industry, tasked with stabilizing prices and protecting Malawians from exploitative business practices.
