Malawi's president risks being cocooned by advisers feeding him comforting lies while the country's economy crumbles around him, a fierce broadside from opposition leader Dalitso Kabambe has claimed.
The former central bank governor, who now leads the United Transformation Movement (UTM), unleashed the attack in a blistering Facebook post on Saturday -- accusing President Peter Mutharika's inner circle of prioritising political comfort over economic truth.
Kabambe painted a grim picture of a nation still gripped by a punishing foreign-exchange crisis, with ordinary Malawians and businesses locked out of the currency they desperately need.
According to the opposition chief, commercial banks are so starved of foreign currency that customers in some cases can access as little as $200 -- a limit he says is choking entrepreneurs and businesses reliant on imported goods.
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He didn't stop there. Kabambe claimed banks are sitting on a mountain of unpaid Letters of Credit they simply cannot liquidate, and demanded financial institutions come clean with the president about just how dire the situation has become.
Banks, he warned, answer to shareholders and depositors -- not to government's development goals -- meaning they cannot be relied upon to single-handedly rescue the economy.
Inflation 'victory lap' slammed as premature
The UTM leader also took aim at what he branded excessive celebration over recently cooling inflation figures.
Official data shows headline inflation dipped from 20.8 per cent in July to 20.0 per cent in August, with food inflation easing from 14.3 to 13.4 per cent and non-food inflation slipping from 32.2 to 31.8 per cent over the same period.
But Kabambe warned the improvement could prove fleeting, cautioning that seasonal pressures as Malawi heads into the lean period could reverse the gains.
His sharper point: falling inflation is not the same as falling prices. Consumers, he stressed, are still paying significantly more than they were -- inflation slowing down doesn't put money back in anyone's pocket.
Interest rates 'ignoring savers'
Kabambe also turned his fire on interest rates, arguing that praise for lower borrowing costs conveniently ignores the raw deal facing ordinary savers.
With deposit returns sitting below inflation, he warned, Malawians are quietly losing purchasing power -- even as high government borrowing costs pile pressure on the public purse and starve productive investment of resources.
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"He needs the truth, not comfort"
At the heart of Kabambe's message was a direct challenge to the president himself: surround yourself with people willing to deliver bad news, not just good headlines.
He argued that real economic recovery demands honesty from every corner -- banks, policymakers and politicians alike -- rather than messaging designed to paper over the scale of the crisis.
The former central banker's parting shot was blunt: Malawi's leaders must be willing to confront powerful interests head-on, rather than dress up hard truths as good news.
