In an indirect response to the Catholic Bishops pastoral letter titled ‘who will roll away the stone for us?’, the main opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has said that it is ready to do the job.
In a response to the 2025-26 budget statement on behalf of the party, Thyolo Central Constituency legislator Ben Phiri said DPP is geared to replace the ruling Malawi Congress Party (MCP) during the forthcoming elections in September.
“Fellow Malawians the DPP is ready to roll away the stone. Malawians will remove MCP. This is the time for the people to rise and show MCP the exit door. The Budgets since 2020 have delivered nothing but lies. MCP budgets have delivered corruption and plunder, and self-enrichment for the few MCP elites. These are the stones that we will roll away.
“Fellow Malawians, since 2020, MCP has delivered nothing but poverty. I urge you, fellow Malawians, to say enough is enough, and call upon MCP to stop the economic persecution inflicted on the masses. MCP must vacate State House in September because the people cannot endure another 5 years of Chakwera’s economic cluelessness and plunder. Chakwera is the stone that must be rolled away,” he said
Phiri said the budget has an economic context of MCP’s broken promises and lies despite that it promised Malawians that the economy would improve within 2 years.
“The people know very well that this was a big lie. Instead, the economy has worsened. Malawi has become chaotic with bad economic policies. Fellow Malawians, MCP promised to reduce poverty. Now I ask you, has poverty reduced? Not at all! For 5 years since 2020, your poverty has worsened. The World Bank says that poverty has increased, as 71% of the population is living in extreme poverty. This is because MCP is clueless, and they have been sleeping on the job.
“Fellow Malawians, MCP promised you that they will reduce the price of fuel from K750 per litre to less than K500. Today, fuel is selling at K2,730 per liter which is 3 times the price DPP left in 2020. Does symbolise an improved economy. noooo!
“Madam Speaker, the fuel crisis disrupted budgets for Government and business operations. The fuel crisis created uncontrollable corrupt practices as vendors sold fuel at over K10,000 per Liter. That is why we are saying that MCP must pack up and go! Because they do not care about the suffering of the people.
“They also promised to bring in 2,000 Megawatts of new electricity by 2025. We are in 2025 and still far away from this target. Load Shedding and electricity power cuts are a daily experience, particularly in Lilongwe.for record purposes the 19.1 mws Tedzani , the 21mws Serengeti are all DPP projects including the Likoma Solar system,” he said
