Malawi: Vocal comedian Bon Kalindo to stage protest against government

By Joseph Dumbula [caption id="attachment_90913" align="alignnone" width="623"] The new government is a failure, says Kalindo[/caption]   Influential comedian, Bon Kalindo is this Friday slated to lead a protest against the Lazarus Chakwera government over demands to deal with prevailing rising cost of living and unemployment of the youth in the country. Kalindo has meanwhile says he is resigning from the party which ironically is part of other eight political parties which won the election as Tonse Alliance, is accusing his party of not taking Chakwera to task over what he terms as maladministration. ‘’There just no way we can have the youth laboring to fetch jobs when we have in place a one million job creation call by this leadership. Actually, the youth form our largest percent. What does it entail when we don’t empower them. I want them to access loans and opportunities, that is the backbone of this country’’ said Kalindo whose stage name is Winiko. In a viral interview with Rainbow Television earlier this week, Kalindo said the government has also not portrayed any intentions to deal with an imminent rise in basic commodities including the introduction of so many tax havens. Apparently, the social media has drawn his planned demonstrations into mixed reactions with some monitored views stating Kalindo is only advancing a personal agenda and others feeling the concerns are rather national and of critical public interest. Meanwhile, the leadership of UTM through publicist Frank Mwenefumbo, has told MIJ Radio that Kalindo should have resorted to dialogue first. On his part, Chakwera told a gathering recently that people have to reckon the fact that prices of goods and services have gone up across the world and that Malawi is no exception. He therefore called for patience and insisted his government is setting measures to cushion people from various economic challenges. Earlier this year, opposition leader in parliament, Kondwani Nankhumwa expressed concerns over the fact that the Malawi kwacha, is weakening against all major convertibles and foreign exchange reserves depleting according to, Reserve Bank of Malawi (RBM). In September this year, Chakwera told parliament that he is worried about the country’s rising public debt stock, which soared to K4.1 trillion as of June 2020, an increase from K3.4 trillion recorded in December 2019. Such a debt stock is 59 percent of the country’s total wealth as measured by nominal gross domestic product (GDP) estimated at $7 billion (about K5.2 trillion).