BLANTYER-(MalawianWatchdog)—As finance minister Joseph Mwanamveka is expected to present a national budget in parliament this afternoon, legislators have been asked to put aside their political affiliations to pave way for objective scrutiny of the national cake.
Considering the fact that the budget comes amid political bickering between the ruling party and opposition parties, Malawians across the country have said it will be very important for the parliamentarians to think about the electorates rather than their political parties.
However, speaking to Zodiak radio, monitored by Malawian Watchdog, people gave different views on what they expect from the budget.
“They need to invest more in education more especially in infrastructure development; classrooms and teachers’ house. We need more resources in this area because if we want to succeed we need to put more effort in this area. Another area that needs more attention is the health sector. In this area we are talking about good nutrition to people, enough equipments and drugs,” said one of the citizens in Salima.
“I think the parliament should focus on employing more doctors in hospitals. We are failing to get better service because we don’t have enough human resource. As they are focusing on initial budget, they should focus much on employing more staff as well as buying more medicine,” said another person in the same district.
“As a Malawian, personally I am expecting a lot from this budget. Firstly, if you go on the market you will see that prices of a lot of commodities have skyrocketed. So, we expect that the budget will address such challenges that we Malawians are facing.
“There is also an issue of building stadiums for private owned teams, Bullets and Wanderers. That I think should not be included in the budget. The budget should first address challenges that Malawians, especially those in rural areas, are facing,” commented another person in Dedza.
The budget sitting comes amid political tension in the country, emanating from the May 21 tripartite elections.