Malawi: President Joyce Banda Cuts Own Salary

Malawi: President Joyce Banda Cuts Own Salary

By Blantyre, AP, Malawi – October 3, 2012

http://tinyurl.com/9htkk5y

Malawi President Joyce Banda announced that she will take a 30 percent pay cut to show that she will sacrifice personally as part of her government’s austerity measures.

Banda, Africa’s second female president after Liberia’s Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, came to power in April following the death of President Bingu wa Mutharika.

Banda and Vice-President Khumbo Kachali will both cut their salaries by 30 percent, but Banda said she will not force the rest of her cabinet to do so, saying it was up to them to choose.

Banda confirmed that her government will sell the controversial presidential jet in two weeks.

The purchase of the jet three years ago by Mutharika angered donors.

Banda said that she will never fly in the plane, which she called wasteful.