The Centre for Democracy and Economic Development Initiatives (CDEDI) has accused President Lazarus Chakwera and Speaker of the National Assembly, Catherine Gotani-Hara, of paralysing parliamentary committee meetings to dodge questions on the K6.2 billion Covid-19 response funds, which is feared to have been looted.

CDEDI executive director Sylvester Namiwa claims that their independent investigations revealed that the Gotani-Hara got
instructions from Chakwera to ensure that parliament is not functional during this time, in an attempt to cover up the abuse of the Covid-19 funds.

“CDEDI has noted with disappointment on the conduct by the State President Dr. Lazarus Chakwera and the Speaker of the National Assembly Hon. Catherine Gotani- Hara who seem to have conspired to paralyse the parliamentary committee
meetings on the pretext of the Covid-19 preventive measures. Our expectation was that the parliamentary committees such as those on Health, Budget and Finance, Public Accounts Committee and the Welfare Committee, were supposed to be meet to discuss the MK6.2 billion which has mysteriously grown wings at the Department of Disaster Management Affairs (DoDMA),” Namiwa says in a statement issued on Monday night.

Namiwa alleges that Chakwera and Gotani-Hara have prioritized the meetings for the Public Appointments Committee (PAC) of parliament, solely to discuss the firing of the two Commissioners for the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) and the appointment of the Director General (DG) for the Financial Intelligence Authority (FIA).

He has challenged Gotani-Hara to consider taking advantage of innovations in the world of technology to ensure that such committees, or better still the whole National Assembly resumes its meetings virtually.

…Chakwera promotes young brother under mysterious circumstances

Things are literally falling apart for President Lazarus Chakwera who is now being accused of favouritism and nepotism by his own Malawi Congress Party (MCP).

Chakwera is under heavy fire from his own party for allegedly giving lucrative government positions to Malawi Assemblies of God Church Elders.

In a statement which Malawi Voice has seen, a group calling itself Second Liberation of Malawi Nation has since threatened vigils across the country should Chakwera fails to meet their demands by 21February.

According to the statement signed by former MCP MP for Kasungu West Alex Major, the group wants Secretary to Government Zangazanga Chikhosi fired on grounds that he is not a bonafide member of MCP and is deliberately frustrating government business.

The group is also asking for the head of Chief of Staff Prince Kapondamgaga, Chakwera’s son in law Sean Kampondeni and Chief Finance Officer at State House Gideon Kalumbu.

Ironically the trio are involved in a hotelgate scandal where State House were paying millions of tax payers for hotel accommodation of a private contractor to State House.

“Prince Kapondamgaga has never been MCP apart from being your church elder,” reads the letter in part.

The group says they want Chikhosi out together with his deputy Janet Banda because ‘he has never been an MCP person apart from having close connections with the DPP…’.

“Let us remind you that you came to power because of the party not family or church,” they said.

The group claims to be enjoying support from 95 percent of MCP MPs, 95 percent of MCP NEC and 100 percent of MPs from Tonse Alliance Partners.

President Chakwera has appointed Dr Queen Dube, wife to Chakwera’s trusted cleric Bishop Dube during his Assemblies of God days as Director of Health Services and also his young brother James Chakwera as Director of Aviation Services. No known interviews were conducted for the two positions to give chance to others to compete, a promise which Chakwera preached during his campaign rallies before the elections.

The group has given Chakwera two weeks up to 21st February 2021 to sort out the mess or they will hold vigils at Kamuzu Palace until their demands are met.

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President Lazarus Chakwera is a scared man. With mutiny brewing in his own party and impending by- elections in the Lower Shire, Chakwera had no choice but to dash off to Ngabu to pay last respects to his party’s financier the late Sidik Mia one month after his death.

However, some sectors of the society feel President Chakwera should be ashamed and embarrassed for visiting Mia’s grave almost one month after the Transport Minister succumbed to Covid-19.

Mia together with fellow cabinet colleague Lingson Belekanyama died within hours on 12 January 2021. They were both buried the same day in Ngabu and Lilongwe respectively.

Last week, the High Court in Blantyre nullified Parliamentary elections of Nsanje North, Chikwawa East and Nsanje Central constituencies.

Chakwera visited former president Joyce Banda in Lilongwe last week to condole her on the loss of her son Geoffrey Kachale Banda who also succumbed to Covid-19.

“He is coming here because he has heard about the by elections. Otherwise you can’t take the whole month without visiting your own party vice president who funded your campaign and even paid for your accommodation in Blantyre, it does not make sense,” said one angry MCP supporter at Ngabu in Chikwawa.

“We are eagerly waiting to see on when he will visit Mwalwanda’s and Belekanyama’s resting places,” he added.

President Chakwera came under heavy attack after failing to either attend Mia’s burial ceremony or send a representative.

The late Mia for starters, sacrificed his energy, resources and money to revive MCP political muscle from shameful defeat in opposition for more 26 years, loosing elections after elections.

Only six months into leadership, Mia succumbed to Covid-19 with little rewards of his sweat.

What surprised many was on how the late Mia remains buried without MCP representatives, even Chakwera sending condolence messages to the bereaved family as many expected to announce at the burial ceremony at Ngabu, Chikwawa, home village.

Later an audio went viral communicating to the Muslim community in Malawi as the late Mia’s religion, expressed sadness the way Chakwera and MCP treated the late Mbuya’s remains.

“Immediately after death pronouncement in the morning of Tuesday, January 12, 2021, we spent about three hours at Queens Central Hospital without any MCP or Tonse government officials to be part of Muslim Jhadhi community which handled the whole burial ceremony.”

“We expected traffic police officers to help clearing the road from hospital to the late’s house till home village Ngabu in Chakwera considering that Mia was a senior cabinet minister and MCP Vice President but nothing of that sort happened,” worried a Muslim brother in the audio.

He added, “Our hope was on our way from the late Mia house (Namiwawa, Blantyre) that police traffic officers could come in but nothing of that sort that we had to wait for traffic lights (robots) for minutes with the remains of the senior cabinet minister until I used my vehicle to clear the road till we got here at home village at Ngabu.

“When we arrived at Ngabu for burial later in the evening, we also expected Malawi government and MCP officials to speak at the funeral where we were up to 7 pm but nothing happened when we just head that the head of state was speaking on radio. Did Mia really deserve this despite all his sacrifices to the leadership?”

During the national address following Mia’s address on January 12, Chakwera’s face showed no emotions to signify that he had lost two of his cabinet ministers.

Free for all! President Lazarus Chakwera’s Press Secretary Brain Banda has been embroiled in a corruption scandal where he got millions of kwachas from Indian businessmen in exchange for favours in a Marep project.

We can reveal that Banda got more than K20 million from some Indian businessmen who wanted to have their business premises electrified in the outskirts of Chileka in Blantyre.

Insiders said president Chakwera has been made aware of the scandal and is yet to make a decision.

A source said when the Indian businessmen approached Banda for help, he knew it would take long if they were to go through Escom and decided to use Marep.

“He called people at Marep to connect the Indians saying the President had directed so but this raised some suspicion at Marep as the area that Banda was talking about was not among the priority areas of the project and decided to cross check with the Office of the President and Cabinet (OPC).”

“It was people at OPC who raised the flag and when they checked with the President, it was found that he never gave that order. So we are waiting what decision the President will make,” explained the source.

This is not the first time for Banda to be involved in corruption shenanigans. He was fired at Times Group for soliciting bribes but was called back following public outcry.

During former president Joyce Banda’s reign when he was one of the presidential press offers, Banda was also involved in a K5 million scam from National Aids Commission after telling management that then president had authorized that NAC gives him the money for some communication project.

Social media has been awash with the news of Andrew Nyondo who is using Chigoba called Peter Makina to shower insults at UTM members even those in cabinet.

Following his appointment to be Public Relation Officer(PRO) of Ministry of Homeland Security, where Chimwendo Banda is the Minister this has raised a lot of discomfort with Tonse Alliance government that the political marriage between MCP an UTM is of cat and mouse and is nearing to the end. Andrew Nyondo aka Peter Makina was mere driver at department of Prison which too falls under the Ministry of Homeland Security.

Recently ‘peter makina’ was seen attacking Deputy Minister of Health, Chrissie Kalamula for taking her holiday to her family in USA.

Latest reports have emerged that the trio of mkaka, khumbize and Chimwendo are behind all the bad mouthing Andrew Nyondo is vomiting on social media to discredit UTM leadership and followers.

There is fierce battle going on between UTM and MCP on social media for supremacy.

Two days ago MCP has appointed three media team guys to work at State House with a sole reason to fight UTM President Saulos Chilima and his entire leadership as plot for 2025 battles.

A feud of supremacy between DPP spokesperson Brown James Mpinganjira and the party’s parliamentary spokesperson on finance Joseph Mathyola Mwanamveka has seemingly ensued where both of them have signed off a statement on the party’s position on the alleged misappropriation of K6.2 billion at the Department of Disaster Management (DoDMA), which falls under the presidency.

In an exciting twist of events, Mwanamveka originated a statement as DPP parliamentary spokesperson on finance in which he reprimanded President Lazarus Chakwera’s government for allegedly allowing DoDma officials abuse billions of Kwacha allocated for the fight against the deadly COVID-19 pandemic.

According to inside sources, alparently following protocol, Mwanamveka informed party President Arthur Peter Mutharika about his intention to issue a statement in his parliamentary spokesperson capacity. He shared the copy of the statement with his leader.

However, upon receiving the statement, APM forwarded it to Mpinganjira to seek his views and input. In an apparent desire to outdo Mwanamveka, Mpinganjira, or BJ as he is popularly known in political circles, went ahead to sign off the statement and released it to the media as originating from the ‘Office of the DPP Spokesperson’.

Meanwhile, not to be outdone, and without further waiting for feedback from the party President, APM, Mwanamveka released the same statement to the media bearing his signature. The Nation of Tuesday February 9, 2021, carries a story quoting Mwanamveka’s statement on its front page.

The same Mwanamveka statement has also been published on online Nyasa Times.

A political analyst in Lilongwe, Charles Kalungwe, has observed that the DPP is in a state of chaos and flux, especially considering the latest statement episode.

“The party is in some form of involuntary transition. There are so many people with top leadership ambitions and they will not stop at anything to outdo each other. This ‘statement’ drama is a typical example of leaders in a fight over visibility”, said Kalungwe in an interview on Tuesday.

He also said what has just happened in the DPP suggests there are many centres of power that are being created by various aspirants such as Mpinganjira and Mwanamveka in anticipation of the forthcoming leadership contest.

“This is the kind of chaos that characterized a political party with no clear leadership succession plan. It also tells you that the leader of the party is not in control,” he said.

It is not clear whether or not the party will clarify who should have been the appropriate official to sign off and publish the statement.