Anti-Bakili Muluzi / MALAWI POLITICS TODAY

Malawi’s anti-corruption stance impresses Britain

March 7, 2006,

By Frank Jomo

Blantyre (AND) The new British envoy to Malawi Richard Wildash who presented his credentials to President Bingu wa Mutharika yesterday at the New State House in Lilongwe has hailed the President for his zero-tolerance towards corruption.

“We very much support what the President is doing in terms of governance generally and the problem of corruption in particular. Clearly corruption is damaging the economy, it’s absolutely right that it should be a high priority to deal with that and it is an on-going process. It is not something that you can do in a day, week, month or even year,” said Wildash. In a report monitored on local broadcaster Malawi Television (TVM), Wildash said corruption has robbed the country of development and that it was imperative for the government to fight it. He promised his government’s continued assistance to Malawi in the fight against corruption. He said African leaders needed to take corruption fight head-on if promises made at the Gleneagles Summit in Scotland last year are to become a reality. Also presenting their letters of credence were Spanish Ambassador to Malawi, Santiago Caro who is based in Zimbabwe and Tanzanian based Iranian Ambassador to Malawi Abbas Vaezi.