Joyce Banda, Malawi President, Cuts Own Salary In Austerity Solidarity

The Huffington Post, October 3, 2012

Malawi President Joyce Hilda Mtila Banda addresses the 67th session of the

 United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters Wednesday, Sept.

26, 2012. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

BLANTYRE, Malawi -- 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.