adminwa Mutharika addresses concerns about his political and economic leadership of the southern African nation, a newspaper said yesterday.
“The donors are still concerned about threats to press freedom and the ‘shrinking political space’,” the Nation newspaper quoted World Bank country manager Sandra Bloemekamp as saying.
“These, (among other issues), are continuously raising Malawi’s profile in the international community in negative light.”
Bloemekamp, who chairs a committee of the donors who normally account for 40 percent of Malawi’s budget, was also quoted as saying outside governments were concerned about Lilongwe’s failure to get an IMF loan programme back on track.
In addition, the paper said donors were demanding president wa Mutharika to speed up an inquiry into a July crackdown on anti-government protests in which 20 demonstrators were killed.
The aid freeze started earlier this year with a diplomatic spat with Britain, Malawi’s biggest donor, caused by a leaked diplomatic cable that labelled Mutharika “autocratic and intolerant of criticism”.
Washington joined in after the July violence, suspending a US$350 million project to upgrade the impoverished, land-locked state’s decrepit electricity grid.
Combined with a collapse in revenues from tobacco, Malawi’s main foreign exchange earner, the aid embargo has triggered an acute dollar shortage, putting pressure on the kwacha currency and hitting imports of basics such as food and fuel. – Reuters.
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