LILONGWE--Top consumer rights activist John Kapito has urged Malawi President Joyce Banda to trim the benefits of her cabinet ministers to ably walk the talk on austerity measures the People’s Party (PP) led government has put in place.

Kapito told The Nation Thursday that Pres Banda’s austerity measures and the implementation of the Economic Recovery Plan can only be taken seriously with concrete gestures.

“The president has requested all of us to tighten our belts, why can’t she ask her own people to do the same? She is pleading with us to join her in the economy recovery plan, but at the same time saying there are some people she cannot tell to do the same,” he said, referring to Banda’s sentiments that she can't force ministers to cut their salaries.

Banda and her deputy announced last week that they'd cut their salaries by 30 percent.

The consumer rights activist said the statement “cannot force the minister cut their salaries” is ridiculous.

“To me, it seems she has no clue and no idea of what she wants to achieve and what she has to do to move the economic recovery plan,” Kapito told the paper.

He also observed that the president’s justification for taking a huge entourage to the US is infuriating to Malawians.

“Such statements make me wonder if it is not a curse for Malawi that we always have leaders who do not mind about our feelings. And this time, we have a leader who does not only understand her own people but also the country that she is living in,” he added.
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(c) The Maravi Post 2012. Reproduction without acknowledgement prohibited.

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