A statement which leaders of opposition political parties delivered in Lilongwe on Thursday contained scathing bits on President Peter Mutharika\u2019s administration, but observers are wondering why they excluded the contentious Salima-Lilongwe Water Project.<\/p>\n
In their 17-point declaration, the opposition political party leaders\u2014led by Malawi Congress Party (MCP) President Lazarus Chakwera\u2014accused Mutharika of failing to decisively deal with corruption and bad governance, among others.<\/p>\n
Some people believe by coming together and deliver a collective statement on the country\u2019s state of governance and never tackling the water project issue, the opposition leaders missed an opportunity to make their collective stand known on the matter.<\/p>\n
In an interview yesterday, Executive Director of Justice Link, Justin Dzonzi, said he entirely agrees with those faulting the opposition for ignoring the saga in their statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe contractual arrangement of the project leaves a lot to be desired. This is an issue that ought to be looked at critically because it is about economic governance. Huge sums of money are involved and with the opposition\u2019s statement centring on economic governance, they should have tackled the issue as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cMalawians are concerned with corruption, poverty and all sorts of governance challenges. This means leaders who are aware of these concerns cannot articulate governance issues without tackling such concerns,\u201d Dzonzi said.<\/p>\n
The project, through which Lilongwe Water Board (LWB) seeks to tap water from Lake Malawi in Salima to the capital city, was awarded to Khato Civils Limited which is owned by South Africa-based Malawian, Simbi Phiri.<\/p>\n
Phiri admitted to having made donations to both MCP and governing Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). Recently, the Public Accounts Committee (Pac) argued that both the opposition and government leadership are compromised to speak on the matter because of the donations.<\/p>\n
But in separate interviews yesterday, New Labour Party (NLP) leader, Sam Mpasu, People\u2019s Progressive Movement (PPM) leader, Mark Katsonga, and MCP Deputy SecretaryGeneral, Eisenhower Mkaka, defended the exclusion of the saga in the statement.<\/p>\n
Mpasu said the list that they came up with was not exhaustive because \u201cthere are several issues which underscore bad economic governance which were not included on that list.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cFor instance, there are issues like the [tractorgate] which was not there because it was not possible to include all those issues in one statement. We were bringing the attention of the president to issues of bad governance. \u201cWe were simply trying to say democracy is based on the rule of law, transparency and accountability and that things are not working in this country,\u201d Mpasu said.<\/p>\n
On his part, Katsonga argued that the opposition political party leaders did not deem it fit to include the water saga in their statement because \u201cgovernment admitted that something was wrong with the project and promised to review it\u201d.<\/p>\n
Said Katsonga:\u201cI think something is happening as far as the issue is concerned. The Minister of Finance talked about reviewing the project.<\/p>\n
That shows government is admitting that something went wrong. You don\u2019t continue whipping a child that has confessed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mkaka, who mostly speaks for MCP, said while he could not speak on behalf of the opposition political party leaders who addressed the press conference where the statement was made, the leaders had an agenda on economic governance \u201cwhich they competently delivered\u201d.<\/p>\n
On the other hand, he claimed that MCP has already made its stand clear on the $500 million water project. \u201cWe have talked about that issue as MCP and our stand has been very clear that a project of that nature needs a feasibility study and an Environmental [and Social] Impact Assessment [ESIA],\u201d said Mkaka.<\/p>\n
However, it is not known if MCP as a party has publicly made such a stand known.<\/p>\n
Several parties including Pac, the Malawi Law Society (MLS) and the Attorney General have given their views on the multimillion dollar project with the focal point being that it should be reviewed.<\/p>\n
The absence of the feasibility study and the ESIA and the project\u2019s funding mechanisms are what have raised eyebrows, among other things.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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