By [Ambuje Che] Tom Likambale

One of the most spectacular fallouts of the results of the May 19, 2009 elections in Malawi has been the spectre of knives being publicly out for the head of the opposition Malawi Congress Party [MCP] president, Rt. Honourable John Zenus Ungapake [JZU] Tembo.

The MCP is Malawi’s party of the independence struggle and has been the main opposition grouping in the legislature since the first multi-party government in 1994. For most of that time, Rt. Hon. JZU Tembo has been Leader of the Opposition in the House and has commanded considerable loyalty in the vintage party. Today, some are openly asking for his head.

In the just-ended legislative term, the MCP occupied 66 of the total 193 House seats. Following the polls, however, it has garnered its own record low of 26, representing a precipitous slide tempered only by the (even worse) showing of another once-mighty parliamentary bloc, the United Democratic Front, UDF, with 16 seats from a recent high-water mark of 49. In these elections it hasn’t rained for the opposition; it has poured.

Given this denouement one might be tempted to concur with the MCP’s erstwhile mouthpiece Ishmael Chafukira who, in its wake, publicly challenged the legitimacy of Hon JZU Tembo’s continued leadership of the party of Malawi’s founding president, Ngwazi Dr. Kamuzu Banda. However, one would be wrong.

Wrong, too, were the media pundits and civil society spokespeople who condemned the MCP for firing Chafukira from his position as party spokesperson, if not from the party altogether. The aforementioned faulted “a lack of democracy” in the MCP and an “intolerant” streak in Hon. JZU Tembo, for Chafukira’s woes. A herd mentality is typical of Malawi’s punditocracy, as is a critical glibness and ignorance when commenting on the internal processes of opposition parties.

Despite his earnest claims, Hon. Chafukira, a clearly intelligent and talented legislator, has not made a convincing case for bringing his disgruntlement with his party’s leadership to the public forum so soon after the election results; nor has he elucidated convincingly that the MCP’s loss was (singularly) the result of weakness in Hon JZU’s leadership.  And if the new MCP spokesperson Nancy Tembo is to be believed, Hon. Chafukira did not use any available internal mechanisms for grievance-airing and grievance-settling before going public. Chafukira thus directly violated the party’s well-known and long-standing “cornerstones” – or code of conduct - of Unity, Loyalty, Obedience and Discipline. To boot, he did so before waiting for the dust of the election loss to settle.

Opposition fortunes did not so much go down in flames on May 19^th for reasons of alleged weaknesses inherent in their ranks as Chafukira and and others would have us believe. Rather, they did so for things the government did which the opposition could not overcome.

Curiously, no pundits in Malawi’s media pantheon were able to describe the obviously devastating effect of the ruling DPP’s hegemony, to the total and illegal exclusion of the opposition and its points of view, of the publicly owned airwaves: two radio channels with the widest rural audience and the (almost) sole local television outlet. The more recent additional TV channel, the Catholic Church’s Luntha-TV, remains a fledgling and does not air political content. The other, independent Joy-TV, was killed at birth by the DPP government.

Nor could the pundits find time to gauge the effects of the DPP’s open use of vast government resources – from coerced civil servants to coerced school children to government vehicles and huge sums of public money – to fuel its campaign countrywide. Our pundits failed to even examine the effects on the campaign of the government’s tactic of intimidating its political opponents chiefly through police action and contrived court cases.

If the government did spectacularly well, winning the presidency and 114 seats before adding independents; while the opposition did spectacularly poorly, it was largely because of the aforementioned factors.

Contrary to popular media thinking, Hon. JZU’s longevity on Malawi’s political playground dating back to the days of independence is in fact an endearing quality; a strong point in his favour. Malawians do not generally consider stale men and women of accumulated experience in public service. These include the Aleke Bandas, the Cassim Chilumphas, the Justin Malewezis, the Joyce Bandas, the Bakili Muluzis, the Gwanda Chakuambas and others like them; a good number of whom, including Hon. JZU himself, have just been re-elected by their constituents.

Hon JZU, moreover, continues to enjoy the support of a demonstrable majority of his party’s rank and file. If nothing else, Hon. Tembo’s self-avowed “puludzu” persistence in fighting for political causes unfavourable to the ruling party, amid much resistance and hopeless odds, is exemplary and endearing. The argument that he is long past his political shelf life is thus less than convincing, to say the least.

In these days that are in the shadow of the May 19^th voting, Hon JZU Tembo should be left alone in his well-earned right to make up his own mind, in his own appropriate time, whether to resign or continue as leader of Malawi’s nationalist party following the recent election results.  It erodes not only Hon. JZU’s authority inside and outside the party, but also the party’s image, authority and effectiveness, when its leader is seen to be publicly hounded out of office by party apparatchiks so soon after the general elections. If Hon JZU’s long public service merits him certain courtesies, and it does, they must surely include his being treated with dignity and respect – certainly in public, and I would say in private, too.

The next general elections are five years away. Rt. Hon Tembo as a person, and the MCP as an institution, both have the accumulated wisdom and intellect to first let the dust settle before making decisions about leadership in tranquillity and appropriate subtlety to minimise further adverse vicissitudes to the party in light of the recent electoral losses.

Treat this leader with his well deserved dignity. Use internal party grievance-airing and grievance-settling mechanisms before going public; and, above all, observe the four cornerstones which have stood the test of time and served the party so well for so long.

By Tom Likambale

1.05 Mutharika forms new “ruling” party

By the end of Mutharika’s first year in office, he had formed a new political party which he referred to as the “ruling” party. He named it after the then party of government in Taiwan, the Democratic Progressive Party [DPP]. The Taiwanese were bankrolling Mutharika’s new party on condition that Malawi supports Taiwan’s national objectives in international forums chiefly at the United Nations. In fact, Mutharika’s first address at the United Nations General Assembly as president was notable for its effusive praise of Taiwan’s attributes as a nation which, he argued, made the case for Taiwan’s admission as a fully fledged member of the UN and its affiliated organisations.

It will be shown later that after he had received all he wanted from the Taiwanese, Mutharika abruptly switched Malawi’s diplomatic relations from Taiwan to Mainland China.

To buttress his party in the legislature, Mutharika used financial inducements to attract independent and opposition MPs, often dangling cabinet posts as bait. In this way he managed to “poach” members of parliament from the opposition parties chiefly from the UDF and the MCP, who then had to “cross the floor” of Parliament to join his new party. This is prohibited in the Malawi constitution in the absence of a fresh mandate from constituents authorising their Member of Parliament to cross the floor. Section 65 of the constitution requires a Member of Parliament to first resign his or her seat, and then run in a by-election before being allowed to sit in the legislature as a member wearing new party colours.

Mutharika’s unconstitutional “poaching” proved to be yet another irritant in relations between him and the two main opposition parties, the UDF and MCP. However, the president believed he was doing nothing wrong, and, to prove his point, he sought a court reference on the validity of the 65 prohibition.

The June 15, 2007, opinion of the Supreme Court of Appeal reaffirmed the validity of Section 65 of the Constitution, upholding an earlier ruling of the High Court which was to the effect that section 65 entailed that anyone leaving his sponsoring party in Parliament who joins another party also in Parliament crossed the floor and needed to resign from Parliament and seek a new mandate from constituents. The Courts added that section 65 strengthened the multi-party system which was opted for by a majority of Malawians in the referendum of 1993. Had the Court expunged section 65 from the Constitution, as Mutharika wanted, this would have put Malawi on a slippery slope back towards the return of one-party dictatorship.

The Court reference also reinforced the need for ethical considerations when elected officials exercised their individual rights such as freedom of party choice, association etc. The Court’s comments in this regard, while concentrated on the issue of floor-crossing in Parliament, were seen to subtly refer to the president’s own conduct in leaving the party that sponsored him to power and forming a new “ruling” party that did not exist at the time of voting.

Until it won six by-election parliamentary seats of its own in November 2006, by-elections which were not the result of the defections in Parliament but by the death of incumbents in the relevant constituencies, the DPP continued to function in Parliament chiefly under the auspices of the “poached” members. The president, despite the court ruling, adamantly blocked any efforts by opposition parties to have the defecting MPs dismissed from the House to trigger Section 65 by-elections. The tone in Parliament, therefore, was bitter and remained so during the rest of Mutharika’s term of office. At every opportunity, the opposition MCP and UDF sought to have Section 65 invoked; and at every opportunity, “poached” members and new DPP members stalled and blocked such efforts using every means, including endless court injunctions served upon the Speaker of Parliament, Louis Chimango.

Section 12(1) of the Constitution stipulates that political authority must be exercised in accordance with the Constitution solely to serve and protect the interests of the people of Malawi. By running on a UDF ticket, Mutharika advertised himself as a future UDF president. To the extent that he morphed into someone other than a UDF president, in fact forming a completely new party to lead government, he betrayed the wishes of those who voted him into office; and the mandate of the DPP to the role of a “ruling party” is non-existent. The same is the case with MPs who went to Parliament under different party banners and have since changed to the president’s new party without first resigning their seats and seeking new mandates from their constituents.

The scenario has also produced a high level of corruption in government for, in order to have enough Members of Parliament on his side, the president felt compelled to offer ministerial posts, thus ballooning his cabinet well beyond the numbers and levels of competence he promised at his inaugural. Malawi now has its largest cabinet ever. There have also been allegations of monetary inducements. We have read, for example, about the Special Client Account. This was a secret slush fund from which the President paid monetary inducements to MPs from other parties to entice them to join the government side.

1:06 Persecuting the Vice President

Vice President Cassim Chilumpha’s prosecution is yet another example of the persecution of presumed political opponents using the criminal justice system that has become a hallmark of the Mutharika regime. The practice is consistent with the president’s standard response to prominent dissenters. The list of people that are, or have been, at the receiving end of this persecution is long. It includes, but is not restricted to, Lucius Banda, Maxwell Milanzi, Sam Mpasu, Clement Stambuli, Yusuf Mwawa, Gwanda Chakuamba, Harry Thomson, Alfred Mwechumu and, of course, former president Dr. Bakili Muluzi himself, upon whom the Anti-Corruption Bureau [ACB] has been unleashed to mete out constant harassment.

Vice President Chilumpha’s travails obviously arose out of Chilumpha’s refusal to join Mutharika’s Democratic Progressive Party [DPP], to the intense chagrin of the president. Better than Mutharika, Chilumpha appeared to understand that in a self-respecting democracy, a party that voters did not elect to power, which didn’t even exist when the voting was done, should not be running government. Secondly, it was obvious that Chilumpha’s public criticism of the politically motivated arrests of Lucius Banda and Max Milanzi infuriated Mutharika and his minions who, in turn, orchestrated Chilumpha’s own arrest and persecution.

The time line of political events leading to the Vice President’s arrest itself raises clear doubts about his culpability on the charges proffered and lends credence to the suspicion that his troubles are the result of politics, and not criminal behaviour on his part.

Before Mutharika’s resignation from the UDF, he showed no public sign of hostility towards Chilumpha. The Vice President was even able to publicly chastise the president with seeming impunity. For example, reporter Francis Machado quoted the Vice President in the Daily Times of Wednesday, January 5, 2005, as publicly advising the president that no democratic government could run without a party; and that the president and others owed their elected positions to the efforts of their sponsoring party, the UDF. In other words, Chilumpha was able to reproach the president concerning Mutharika’s hostile attitude towards his sponsoring party, to which the president still belonged at that point. However, no misfortune befell Chilumpha as a consequence of this admonition.

Things changed dramatically when Mutharika resigned from the UDF at the beginning of February and formed his own DPP, thus immediately touching off a Tsunami of defections from the UDF to the DPP. The president, it now looks in retrospect, expected Chilumpha to join the bandwagon. But reporter Tiwonge Kampondeni wrote in the Daily Times of February 18th, 2005, that when the press asked Chilumpha at a ceremony in Nkhotakota if he was going to join the DPP, his response was a clear “No.” This appears to have marked the beginning of real hostilities by the president towards hid deputy.

The president initiated these hostilities when he snubbed the customary farewell handshake from his deputy at Kamuzu International Airport as Mutharika was leaving for Europe on the 10th of March, 2005. From Europe, and contrary to time-honoured protocol, he directed that Health Minister Hetherwick Ntaba replace him as head of the government delegation at the burial of Mangochi Catholic Bishop Nervi, despite Chilumpha’s presence at the same function.

From that point on, there were reports of the Vice President’s Office being systematically starved of timely disbursements of its budgetary allocation for fuel and sundries, often forcing the Vice President to be immobile. And inexplicably, Chilumpha’s press officer was arrested together with Mabvuto Banda and Raphael Tenthani – journalists who had told the world about alleged ghosts at New State House masquerading as marauding rodents and allegedly giving the president nightmares.

Later, following Chilumpha’s publicly stated, and correct, disapproval of the politically motivated arrests of Lucius Banda and Max Milanzi, recriminations from the Mutharika regime came fast and furious. The president himself publicly vilified his deputy and so did the Attorney General who accused the Vice president of, among other things, not attending cabinet meetings.

The Minister of Information and Tourism publicly ordered organizations to stop inviting the Vice President to their functions and Health Minister Hetherwick Ntaba and others in the DPP all joined the fray, ganging-up on the Vice President. Chilumpha’s housekeeping and security personnel were withdrawn.

A letter of dismissal was written to the Vice President, alleging that he had, himself, “constructively resigned” his position as Vice President. The Vice President denied resigning and reminded the public that, constitutionally, the president cannot dismiss the elected Vice President. At this point the Vice President was arrested and charged with Treason. He was Vice President was made to endure more than a week of filthy prison conditions at Maula before being released to house arrest. For him, especially since his public disapproval of the politically motivated arrests of Lucius Banda and Max Milanzi, it didn’t just rain, it poured!

The above clearly establishes a cause-and-effect pattern relating to the troubles being visited upon the Vice President by the Mutharika regime. It is obvious that Chilumpha is being persecuted as a direct result of his failing to satiate Mutharika’s manifestly insatiable appetite for total political loyalty. Mutharika has failed to get this kind of loyalty from his deputy and is clearly out to get his pound of flesh from Chilumpha. There is virtually no one in Malawi who actually believes the charge that Chilumpha plotted to kill Mutharika.

The courts, to whose will Malawi’s policing and prosecuting services ought to submit, will confirm, through their handling of the Chilumpha case and others like it, if Malawi has now officially become a Banana Republic where challenging the president leads directly to harassment by police, the ACB and the Directorate of Public Prosecutions; and ultimately to convictions on fabricated criminal charges. It is incumbent upon the courts to demonstrate that they are not just branch offices of this regime. Given the infinite power of the state to manufacture otherwise non-existent evidence against those who have fallen out of political favour with the president, a reasonable doubt about their criminal guilt ought to automatically arise in cases of people dragged to court by government for manifestly political reasons.

The world is watching Malawi in these cases. Therefore, it is not only Cassim Chilumpha who is on trial in the court of world public opinion. So is Malawi’s entire criminal justice system. Mr. President, for the sake of Malawi’s international image if for no other reason, free Cassim Chilumpha now!

Govt overpays contractor

Government has demanded refund of USD 300, 686 (K42 million) from an Indian company that supplied treadle pumps to the Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation after a comprehensive audit revealed that there was an excess payment due to duplication.

Secretary to the Treasury Radson Mwadiwa confirmed government discovered some duplication of payment during the procurement of the pumps and has since written the company to pay back the money.

After a [sham] audit was carried out by the Auditor General’s office, government discovered over USD 200 which needed to be refunded by the treadle pump company, said Mwadiwa.

Malawi News, however, has found out that the exact amount to be refunded by the company is USD 300, 686 which is an excess payment from the original agreed amount.

Government signed the contract for the supply of 40, 000 treadle pumps with Advaith Pumps and Accessories in 2004 with a total value of USD 4, 258, 800 (K6 billion).

“It appears there was no proper scrutiny about duplication. We have (thus) written them to make good of payment, they should refund, we are going to recover the money and that I can assure you” said Mwadiwa on Wednesday.

According to Mwadiwa, Advaith Pumps and Accessories have agreed to refund the money but have not indicated the specific time-frame to finish payment.

But our further investigations show that government incurred over K100 million losses in the deal through the excess payment and possible evasion of tax because the company traded as a foreign company from India when it has a local branch.

A Form of Tender and Price Schedule for the contract signed by Valappil Prabhakaran Nair and partner (Nedunghat Mohan Khrishnan) showing their full address as of Mumbai, India breaks the contract amount into FOB US$3, 836, 000, Freight Charge US$364, 000 and Insurance US$58, 800.

The contract agreement was signed on January 22, 2004 between the then Principal Secretary for Agriculture and Irrigation Charles Matabwa, now Admarc chief executive officer, and supplier (Khrishnan), appearing as the company’s director.

However, after paying the total contract amount in 17 chunks, it has emerged that government paid USD 4, 559, 485. 98, which is USD 300, 686 in excess of the original figure.

The last payment of the contract was made on September 25, 2008 with a total amount of USD 764, 349. 06 through Ned Bank LTD, London , UK , documents in our possession show.

According to our investigations, the excess payment was made by the Ministry of Finance’s Treasury department with full knowledge of the Reserve Bank of Malawi (RBM), the country’s regulator of foreign exchange.

A certificate of remittance from RBM dated May 10, 2005 with reference number Treadle Pump 10/5, Swift Input FIN 103 Single Customer Credit Transfer and signed by Citibank N.Y. on the same date, confirms that RBM was involved in the transaction of the excess payment to the company with First City Bank LTD 16, Sir William Newton Street, Port Louis, Mauritius.

Further documents in our possession confirm that the Ministry of Finance was the Ordering Customer and that it sent a Remittance Information/ BNF/Treadle Pumps to the company on September 25, 2008, the same date the contract was due.

A confidential document from the Ministry of Finance on the contract shows that the ministry paid USD 764, 349. 06 to Advaiths/04710103 through Ned Bank LTD on September 25, 2008 as the last date of payment after the contract was agreed upon to kick off on January 1, 2004.

But according to a certificate of registration of the company in our possession signed by assistant registrar of Business and Registration Act, F.E Chibisa, Advaith Pumps and Accessories was registered as a company in Malawi on August 7, 2002 under Registration Number 62073 with Valappil Prabhakaran Nair and Nedunghat Mohan Khrishnan as partners.

However, the contact money was being deposited into two foreign companies—First City Bank LTD, Port Louis , Mauritius and Ned Bank LTD, London , UK .

Information in our possession shows that on May 5, 2005 government paid the company USD 356, 668. 00 through First City Bank LTD, Port Louis , Mauritius .

But from July 1, 2005 to September 25, 2008 government had been paying the company through Ned Bank LTD, London , UK . For example, on July 1, 2005, it paid USD 667, 399.00 and USD 121, 437. 39; on November 29, 2005 it paid USD 200, 000. 00; on February 20, 2006 it paid USD 191, 657. 68; March 27, 2006 it paid USD 111, 545. 09; April 24, 2006 it paid USD 113, 243. 87.

On June 8, 2006 it paid the company through the same bank USD 142, 529. 02; July 10, 2006 it paid USD 142, 462. 83; September 7, 2006 it paid USD 72, 437. 28; April 11, 2007 it paid USD 133, 290. 00; July 10, 2007 it paid USD 80, 450.00; August 23, 2007 it paid 63, 401. 50.

On December 10, 2007, government paid the company through the same bank USD 680, 272.11; February 11, 2008 it paid USD 354, 170. 86; March 27, 2008 it paid USD 354, 152. 29 and on September 29, 2008 it finished the payment with USD 764, 349. 06.

Asked on why government paid the company through the foreign banks when it had a local branch with a local account, Mwadiwa countered:

“The question is: Where are the treadle pumps coming from? We had to pay through the mother company in India .”

When told that government may have lost some revenue in form of tax for paying a locally-based company in foreign currency, Mwadiwa said:

“I don’t know what they agreed with the ministry of agriculture and irrigation then but we were just given instructions to pay them in foreign currency.”

Asked on whether it was a proper payment mode for a locally-based company to get payment through foreign exchange, deputy director of public procurement Isaac Chilima said the matter depended on what type of contract government signed with the company.

He said some contracts required payment to be made in foreign currency and if government agreed to the demand, the payment is made.

“It is a possibility to pay in foreign exchange depending on the kind of contract,” saying, once an agreement has been made evasion of tax could not arise.

“But even if the company is based locally, it will still pay tax because it will have to pay duty for the treadle pumps. So eventually issues of tax can not be avoided, if everything is normal,” said Chilima on Thursday.

A well-informed source at the Ministry of Finance claimed by failing to pay USD 4.56 million into local banks despite the company being based locally, the company has successfully evaded any tax in Malawi to be remitted to the Malawi Revenue Authority (MRA), thus making government lose substantial amount of revenue in form of tax due but not collected,” said the government source.

According him, if 30 percent was taken as an average profit margin, about K180 million would be the total profit under the USD 4. 26million contract, which brings to about K54 million as tax on this profit needed to be collected by government through MRA.

However, based on the USD 4.56 million which was actually paid, the total profit margin would be K195 million, translating to K60 million as tax due to be paid to MRA.

If the excess payment of USD 300, 686 (K42 million) was added to the K60 million in loss of tax, it meant the same government, which was supposed to be monitoring the transaction, had lost K102 million.

K102 million in Malawi is equivalent to a budget allocation funding for the whole Dowa District Health Office necessary for the procurement of drugs, salaries and other recurrent expenditures.

The same money can buy over 100 thousand bags of 50kg subsidized fertilizer for about 50 thousand farming families, which can help alleviate flood hit areas of Nsanje and Chikwawa.

Our investigations with sources at MRA last month revealed that although Advaith Pumps and Accessories has existed in the country for the past six years, no accounts have been submitted to MRA under the said company’s name.

MRA spokesperson Steven Kapoloma confirmed on Tuesday his body could not trace the name of the company although it had details of its director, Khrishnan.

“But it is possible to have two similar names, and we can’t exactly say the name we found is the one running this company,” he said.

Kapoloma, however, said it was possible Khrishnan was trading the company under an umbrella company which MRA had not yet found out by the time we called.

Asked what MRA would do if the company was found not to have remitted tax, Kapoloma said:

“We will first go to their offices and ask them to comply with the (tax) law. If they don’t agree, then that’s where we can use other means within the law to ensure that the person complies with tax regulation.”

He, however, said MRA was bound by law not to discuss taxpayers’ details because that information was confidential, according to the law as is the case with lawyers and medical doctors.

Director of Advaith Pumps and Accessories in the country, Khrishnan, could not be reached since last week in Lilongwe as his landline could not be answered.

Our investigations have also revealed that Valappil Prabhakaran Nair who is based in Mumbai , India has a Business Residence Permit File No. 33148 SI. No.210, while that of his local counterpart Nedunghat Mohan Khrishnan is 33295 SI.No.0049.

—
BY MIKE CHIPALASA as reported in Feb 14 Malawi News

By Tom Likambale

1.02 The election of Mutharika in May 2004

The improbable political resurrection of Bakili Muluzi would have been hard to imagine even two and a half years after he left presidential office. The former president insists he truly intended to retire from competitive politics and desired solely to quietly strengthen his party, the United Democratic Front [UDF], which he still chairs. However, things turned out completely differently and almost three years after he left office, and two years before the next general elections, he was compelled to re-enter the competitive political fray as a candidate for President of Malawi in the 2009 general elections on a UDF ticket.

The roots of this denouement lay in betrayal by his successor, President Bingu wa Mutharika, of Muluzi personally and of the UDF party that sponsored Mutharika’s presidential run. In the dying years of Muluzi’s two-term presidency, he plucked Mutharika from obscurity and named him Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of Malawi, and later Minister for Economic Planning and Development in his cabinet. Before this, Mutharika had led the United Party [UP] and contested as its presidential candidate in the 1999 general elections. He fared worst among all the presidential candidates, gathering only 0.4642% of votes cast according to official figures from the Malawi Electoral Commission [MEC].

However, Mutharika’s political stoke rose considerably when he was named into the Muluzi cabinet and, against all expectations among high ranking party officials, and in many cases with their resistance, Muluzi supported Mutharika as his successor, fighting for Mutharika’s nomination as UDF torch-bearer at a UDF leadership convention for the 2004 presidential poll. Because of the party’s loyalty to Muluzi, it rallied behind his chosen successor and threw its resources into Mutharika’s presidential campaign. Muluzi personally crisscrossed the nation to promote the candidacy of his chosen successor, with the result that Mutharika was elected President of the Republic of Malawi on May 20th. 2004. This time around, Mutharika won the presidency with 35.9% of total votes cast.

Mutharika was sworn in as Malawi’s third ever State President on May 24th. 2004 at Blantyre’s Chichiri Stadium – now renamed tha Kamuzu Stadium. In his inaugural address, Mutharika set out some of his objectives and won ringing plaudits in the media for his promise to appoint public officials based solely on academic and/or professional merits rather than political patronage; and the promise to seriously confront corruption in the public sector. Mutharika even quoted from the famous prayer of St. Francis of Assisi, asking God to make Mutharika an instrument of His peace.

In fact, from May to November that year, Mutharika enjoyed a honeymoon with commentators in media. Sentiment towards him within his own UDF party, however, was rather tepid for he already showed, even in those early days, a hostile streak towards his party. Still, the general public, which had elected him only after some arduous campaigning by Muluzi and the UDF, was starting to warm to him. It helped that the party chairman, the widely popular former president Dr. Bakili Muluzi, was constantly asking his party and the public to “support our new president”.

Mutharika took his sweet time assembling his first cabinet, only releasing the names well into June. The new cabinet, announced on June 4th 2004, contained only twenty-one ministers and eight deputies. In this respect, it fulfilled the new president’s inauguration speech promise to keep a lean cabinet especially if you consider that the outgoing cabinet of ex-President Muluzi had contained 46 ministers. In appointing this relatively lean cabinet, Mutharika therefore appeared to adhere to his promise to appoint “an appropriate sized cabinet based on merit,” a direct quote from his inauguration speech of May 24th. 2004.

As it will be shown later, however, Mutharika now boasts the largest cabinet in Malawi’s history, a direct violation of his inaugural speech promise. And even by the time his first cabinet was being announced, storm clouds were brewing just below the horizon in his relationship with his sponsoring party, the UDF.

1.03 The gun incident at Sanjika

It quickly emerged that Mutharika was not simply going to leave out from his cabinet some influential UDF members; he also, at times, seemed to deliberately foment confrontation with the party that sponsored him to power. Often, Chairman Muluzi had to calm angry tempers among party executives upset with the outwardly contemptuous way the new president was treating them.

As the months wore on, however, tensions began to rise to a boil. In early December, 2004, for example, the Minister of Energy, Davis Katsonga, accused the UDF Chairman, Dr. Bakili Muluzi, of causing an electricity blackout that “embarrassed” President Mutharika at an international event attended by the Presidents of Mozambique and Zambia at Capital Hotel in Lilongwe. The UDF reacted with a lawsuit on Katsonga and rebuffed an appeal by Mutharika to dismiss from its ranks Hon. Dumbo Lemani, MP, a founding member of the UDF, from the party’s executive committee. Lemani had reacted angrily in public to Katsonga’s improbable accusation against the former president.

A few other nasty incidents followed, and Chairman Muluzi met Mutharika at least once to try to reconcile the new president with his sponsoring party. But as the incidents increased in frequency, it was later agreed that a larger meeting take place between the President and all senior party officials, including Chairman Muluzi at Sanjika Presidential Palace in Blantyre, during the evening of January 2nd. 2005.

Before the meeting even began, three party officials who had arrived at the palace - Deputy Minister for Transport and Public Works Roy Comsy [UDF], Member of Parliament Alfred Mwechumu [UDF] and former cabinet minister Harry Thomson [UDF] - were unexpectedly arrested and later charged with trying to assassinate Mutharika. The meeting was called off.

Mutharika “pardoned” them a few days later, before they had the opportunity to go to trial to defend themselves against the charge of treason, arguably the most serious criminal charge in the Malawi system of justice. At least Thomson, if not the others, has since obtained compensation for wrongful imprisonment. Comsy, curiously, has been kept in Mutharika’s cabinet. Mutharika could not have kept Comsy in cabinet if he truly believed that Comsy was out to kill him. This, and other things such as the premature pardon as well as the compensation, suggests that the gun incident was staged with the idea of planting fear in the mind of party militants and the party’s national executive committee.

Guns found in the cars of the officials were registered to the owners and had not left the cars. There was no clear indication that the three carried the guns with any criminal intent. They all pleaded that they always carried guns in their cars for their own protection.

The whole thing was a set up.

1.04 Mutharika resigns his UDF membership

Needless to say, the Sanjika gun incident worsened already strained relations between Mutharika and his party. He followed this act with several public accusations against his party, publicly calling it corrupt and threatening to prosecute all of its senior members. And, finally, on February 5th 2005, he announced his resignation from the party and quickly formed a new one, the Democratic Progressive Party [DPP]. He did not resign the presidency to seek a new mandate, but continued in office under this new “ruling party”, although most of his ministers were taken from the UDF party from which he had just resigned.

Many people in the country were stunned to learn that it was possible for a person to get elected into presidential office on the ticket of one party, and then resign from that party after winning elections, yet still remain president, let alone form another party which didn’t exist at the previous general elections!

In the new government, ministers quickly understood that to remain in the good books of the president, and therefore to keep their jobs, they had to join Mutharika’s new political party – never mind that it didn’t exist when people were voting in the general elections which put Mutharika in power. Almost all of them did so, but one notable exception was the elected Vice President, Cassim Chilumpha, who adamantly remained UDF despite huge pressure which was brought to bear upon him. His stubbornness did not sit well with Mutharika, and after a few months of being subjected to much public humiliation by the president, Chilumpha was eventually charged with treason and thrown into jail. He is now out on bail, but remains a pariah of the regime, routinely subjected to public humiliation. He remains under house arrest, and has not been tried, four years after being charged.

In short order, Mutharika embarked upon a campaign to use Malawi’s law enforcement services to persecute many other high ranking members of the party that sponsored him to power. He fought very hard to associate his former party, the UDF, with corruption and waged a ferocious political war against it using the war cry of corruption. A long list of senior UDF officials whom he wanted out of the way had charges of corruption or treason thrown at them. Most have since been acquitted in the courts, some investigations have gone nowhere, and many await their fates to this day – but all are bitter.

Naturally, as an institution, the UDF today feels betrayed by Mutharika, especially considering how hard it worked to market his candidacy – a candidacy which was, as they say, “a hard sell”. This partly explains why the UDF today finds it easier to team up with its bitter rival of lore, Malawi’s vintage political party, the party of the nationalist and independence struggle, the “mighty” Malawi Congress Party [MCP], in a united desire to unseat the unelected “ruling party”, the DPP. As already pointed out, Mutharika had campaigned for the presidency under the auspices of his original United Party [UP] in the elections of 1999 to disastrous results. But now he is president, because of the UDF and its Chairman, former president, Dr. Bakili Muluzi. But for how long more, we all wonder?

Join me again tomorrow as we continue on this journey of unraveling the real story of Mutharika’s accidental presidency in Malawi.

By Tom Likambale

1:00 Background

In Malawi, little was known of Bingu wa Mutharika before President Bakili Muluzi appointed him to be Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank in or around the year 2000, and to cabinet as Muluzi’s Minister of Economic Planning in 2002. Before then, Mutharika had attended a UDF convention, bidding to become its leader and losing to Muluzi around 1992. At that time, Mutharika was Secretary General of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa [COMESA], a position to which he had been appointed.

It is not public knowledge how Mutharika came to get such an [COMESA] appointment since he was, at the time of the appointment in 1991, living in exile, allegedly having fled the Kamuzu Banda dictatorship in Malawi. One assumes that he would not have been appointed to this position by a government he had fled into exile from. Unsubstantiated reports suggest that he had Zambian citizenship at the time and was given that aapointment under the auspices of the Zambian Government. Hopefully, one day Mutharika himself will shed light publicly on this.

Suffice it to say that in between his stint at COMESA, a stint which ended in ignominy for him as explained below, and his appointment to the Reserve Bank Deputy Governorship by Muluzi, the man who was born Brightson Webster Ryson Thomu in Thyolo on February 24, 1934, returned to Malawi and formed his own political party, the United Party [UP]. He contested for the state presidency in the general elections of 1999 under the banner of that party and polled last among all candidates, garnering less than 1% of total votes cast. Muluzi won re-election to a second term in that election.

Mutharika received a Masters degree in Economics at Delhi University in India and a Ph.D award from Pacific Western University in Los Angeles, United States of America. Pacific Western University has been widely criticised for being an institution which routinely awards degrees, not for course or research work done, but in exchange for money. Nevertheless, Mutharika was able to get a job with the United Nations in 1978.

Perhaps a substantive glimpse into Mutharika’s personality and modus operandi in a responsible position can be located in a “Report of the Special Committee of Eminent Persons on the operations of COMESA, 1992 To-Date” which was presented to the [COMESA] Council of Ministers on March 4th, 1997, at Lusaka in Zambia. As a result of that report, Mutharika was fired as COMESA’s Secretary General.

Some of the findings of that report are instructive and below is an excerpted version:

1.5.1 (b) … The Secretary General has used COMESA funds to finance missions which cannot be confirmed to be official and beneficial to COMESA. The Secretary General has also used COMESA resources for personal activities.

1.5.2 (c) The internal audit, which was the only effective control instrument has been scrapped by the Secretary General without the knowledge of the Council; and

(d) The scope of work of the external auditors as evidenced in the Audit contract has been severely restricted by the Secretary General contrary to the provisions of the Treaty.

1.5.4 (a) There is no formal organisation structure at the Secretariat. The absence of a well-thought-out and approved organisation structure has enabled the Secretary General to:
i. abolish some departments and redesign others;
ii. scrap internal audit of the organisation;
iii. fill established positions with consultants; and
iv. misplace and misallocate personnel without matching ability with the task to be accomplished

(b ) The relationship between the Secretary General and COMESA institutions is strained because of the Secretary General’s demeanor and management style. His desire to have a domineering role in the management of these institutions is one of the causes of the strain. The Secretary General has, as a result, failed to conclude cooperation agreements with these institutions as required by the treaty. He has used funds of some institutions contrary to laid down rules and regulations of the institution(s)

(C) The Secretary General has failed to develop an effective and beneficial working relationship with Member States by arrogating himself a status equivalent to Heads of State and Government thereby treating Ministers and officials responsible for COMESA Affairs as inferior to him.

1.5.5 There is no mechanism in place to ensure the effective implementation of the decisions of the policy organs. Since 1992, several major decisions remain unimplemented because of the Secretary General’s failure to find time to address the critical areas that need attention. …..

1.6 Recommendations
1.6.2 At present, the Treaty provisions enable the Secretary General to report to both the Authority and the Council of Ministers. The dual reporting relationship has enabled the Secretary General to, not only ignore, but also bypass the Council on major decisions……

1.6.3 There is no formal accounting system incorporating effective internal controls. As a result, the Secretary General has been able to abuse his power by misusing resources of the institution ….

1.6.4 By limiting external audit to finances from Member States to the exclusion of other resources available to COMESA, the Secretary General has effectively curtailed the role of external auditors as spelt out in the Treaty …….

1.6.8 In view of the management style pursued by the Secretary General, his inability to mould and motivate a dedicated management team, his fragrant and frequent breaches of the provisions of the Treaty, the Staff and Financial Rules and Regulations, his misuse of funds and office and in view of the spite demonstrated to the decisions of the Council, the breach of the conditions of his compulsory leave, the Committee recommends that the services of the Secretary General be terminated forthwith as he lacks vision to take COMESA in the next century.
In its concluding chapter, the report states (excerpts)

6.1 (a) Observations
… We confirm that administrative and financial management of COMESA began to deteriorate with the arrival of the incumbent Secretary General. There is ample evidence of a vibrant institution and a team of professional and dedicated staff prior to his appointment. The vibrancy, level of professionalism and dedication have since continued to wane to the detriment of the aims and objectives of COMESA.
His flagrant refusal to honour invitation to appear before the Committee and his breach of the conditions set out in a letter sending him on leave smacks of obstinacy and unparalleled arrogance reminiscent of his bloated belief that he is at the level of Heads of State and Government and therefore not subject to the decisions of the Council whose Ministers he considers inferior to him. It is a mark of contempt and disrespect to the Committee’s appointing authority.

(b) Dr Mutharika avers in his press reports dated 22nd January 1997 that as an appointee of the Authority, the Council has no mandate to act the way it did, and that he is not subject to the Staff Rules and Regulations.
We disagree with both propositions. He was appointed by the Authority as the chief executive officer of COMESA. He is subject to the policy directions and decisions of the Council in the exercise of its mandate under Article 9 (2) (a), (c) and (d) of the Treaty. He is bound by the decisions of the Council in accordance with Articles 9 (3) and 10 (4) of the Treaty.

(c) We have come across documents and directives which the Secretary General has issued denying application of the staff rules and regulations to him. We disagree with this contention and find that paragraph 4 of his letter of appointment as Secretary General of the PTA dated 3rd May 1990 expressly subjects him to the Staff Rules and Regulations of the PTA. We have noted that no letter appointing him as COMESA Secretary General has been made available to us. In its absence, we find that the original letter of appointment and his being subject to COMESA staff rules and regulations are proper and legal (….) Articles 189 (2) and (4) of the COMESA Treaty which validate contractual obligations made under PTA as if they were made under COMESA and specifically provides that:
“References to the Preferential Trade Area in any law or document shall on and after the appointed day be continued as references to the Common Market.” Article 189 (1) of COMESA Treaty defines “the appointed day” as the day upon the entry into force of the COMESA Treaty. This was on 8th December 1994. We are satisfied that Dr Mutharika’s original letter of appointment as PTA’s Secretary General which subjected him to the Staff Rules and Regulations of the PTA remains valid and legal in so far as COMESA is concerned by virtue of Article 189 (2) and (4) as aforesaid. ………

(a) The Committee has noted glaring instances of mismanagement of the resources of COMESA by the Secretary General. There is outright misuse of funds on unproductive, irrelevant and unrelated mission to COMESA’s aims and objectives. To facilitate such misuse, the Secretary General has dispensed with the internal audit section of the organisation and emasculated the external audit by illegally restricting its audit mandate. Substantial funds of the institution have been used to finance travel, accommodation and other expenses of the Secretary General’s missions. No reports exist to show the net benefit of these missions to COMESA. On the contrary, evidence exists that the bulk of the missions are to Malawi (his home) and Zimbabwe where his wife resides on their farm. COMESA funds these missions, which we have established are primarily private in nature.
….. We have found that no system of internal controls exists at COMESA Secretariat. As a result, there are no operations manuals necessary for the effective financial and budgetary controls. Coupled with the absence of internal audit and ineffective and restricted external audit the Secretary General has misused the finances of COMESA with impunity. He has paid himself questionable expenses, he has given himself loans and advances, he has failed to retire imprest in time or at all despite the express provisions of the rules and regulations as they stand today.

(b) Efficiency in the management and utilization of COMESA resources is lacking. The emphasis in resource utilization has shifted from COMESA’s core mission of project identification, appraisal and implementation to production of abstract reports and personal missions of the Secretary General. The styles of management pursued by the Secretary General in the absence of a clear development strategy do not lend themselves to an efficient resource management system.

(c) There is no approved organisation structure for the institution. Coupled with the dictatorial and intolerant administrative style of the Secretary General, staff has been frustrated to the point of apathy.

(d) Key professionals have resigned as a result. Staff morale is at the lowest ebb to the extent that no meaningful work can be expected of them. Staff rules and regulations have been breached by the Secretary General with impunity and hefty rewards have been made to those prepared to tow his line. In addition to the foregoing, the Council decision restricting the tenure of services of management and professional staff to a two-year contract subject to a maximum of twelve years has created a feeling of insecurity among staff. The over centralization of decision making, authority and financial resource utilization in the secretary General’s office have further compounded the problems of the institution.

We consider such state of affairs inappropriate for the effective administration and management of an international organisation.
(e) The relations between COMESA and its institutions, and Member States are restrained because of the demeanor and arrogance of the Secretary General. He has created more misunderstanding and hatred in the institution and member States than he has made friends.

(f) The Secretary General has usurped the power of the Council by prescribing travel allowances which have primarily benefited him contrary to the provisions of staff and financial rules and regulations. He has misused the Council by discreetly introducing amendments to the staff rules as to the implications of the amendments. We have observed that the amendments were designed to cede power from the Council to himself and were also an attempt to retroactively validate the illegal increases he ordered. We have noted that his attention had been drawn to the illegality and he ignored the advice.

(g) The bulk of policy decisions made by the Authority and the Council have not been implemented because they have received the Secretary General’s low priority. In addition he is hardly available to put in motion machinery for implementation. Available statistics show that on the average, the Secretary General is available in the office for only 7 days in any given month. …..

The secretary General upon assuming office stated that the Monetary Harmonization Programme was over ambitious and unimplementable. As a result, he launched a crusade against the programme already adopted by the authority.
The unfortunate and unjustifiable non implementation of this programme and the non-staffing of the division which made it non functional constituted the break of linkage which was to exist between the Secretary General and other COMESA institutions.
The above situation has seriously impeded the attainment of the objectives of the COMESA Monetary and Financial Cooperation Committee and the Committee of COMESA Board of Governors.

Recommendations….

(a) in view of the management style pursued by the Secretary General, his inability to mould and motivate a dedicated management team, his flagrant and frequent breaches of the provisions of the Treaty, the Staff and Financial Rules and Regulations, his misuse of funds and office and in view of the spite demonstrated to the decisions of the Council and the breach of the conditions of the compulsory leave, the Committee recommends that the services of the Secretary General be terminated forthwith as he lacks vision to take COMESA in the next century.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is the man that Malawians elected to the highest office of the land, the state presidency of the Republic Malawi on May 20th. 2004. Stay tuned for the second instalment in this narrative.

It is has been a period of wild allegations from President Bingu wa Mutharika’s mouth. Just like last year he went flat out threatening to deport expatriate tobacco buyers if they did not by the leaf at the set minimum prices.

But even more surprising to Malawians this time are Mutharika’s allegations that Limbe Leaf Tobacco Company has released a K150 million package to finance Malawi Congress Party (MCP) President JZU Tembo’s campaign for the 19th May 2009 General Elections, and that Tembo’s nephew Morgan Tembo who works for the same company has a hand in the transactions.

Both JZU Tembo and Limbe Leaf have denied President Mutharika’s allegations with many observers concluding that Mutharika must be extremely scared with Tembo as time is approaching closer to the polling day.

“I think Mutharika knows that his days are numbered and that JZU Tembo will beat him severely on 19th May 2009. This is the whole reason he says anything that comes into his head about Tembo,” said a political analyst in Lilongwe. “But for sure Mutharika must know that he is not scoring any mark by spreading lies about Tembo and his close relatives who apparently are ordinary citizens of this country, not politicians.”

Limbe Leaf has distanced itself from Mutharika’s wild allegations and issued a statement denying that it sponsors any political party and that the company has no political affiliations as a corporate entity in Malawi.

The statement states that the tobacco company has strong internal control systems that include a professional Internal Audit Department whose responsibilities, among others, are to ensure internal compliance with Shareholder governance principles, and that Lime Leaf is also subject to external controls through audits by external auditors.

The company says it is duly incorporated in Malawi and owned by Universal Leaf Corporation, a listed company in the United States of America and the Press Corporation Limited also listed on the London Stock Exchange and Malawi Stock Exchange respectively.

“Limbe Leaf is, therefore, bound by corporate governance principles of its shareholders as well as of its own as a corporate entity,” reads the statement in part.

Mutharika’s allegations have attracted criticism from some economists in Malawi who are shocked that a man of his educational background could sink so low to believe whatever lies his party followers bring before his table this time of campaign.

“How can he as an economist believe that a company of Limbe Leaf’s international standing can release such huge sums of money through back door to fund a political party or an individual? This is shameful, and nobody can understand why any of his advisors would want to mislead him on a matter of this nature,” said an economic expert in Blantyre.

—
By Nafe Ngelezi

In Malawi many things develop from simple gossips, and somewhere along the line the truth comes out. That is exactly how stories of President Bingu wa Mutharika’s plans to rig the 19th May 2009 General Elections have developed from mere rumours to real substance.

Such news started leaking almost a year ago when it became clear that he Malawi Congress Party (MCP) and its President JZU Tembo would be the only threat to President Mutharika and his Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in the 19th May 2009 General Elections. It was reported that DPP leaders were sent to two African countries to learn how to rig elections.

Now three weeks to the General Elections the allegations have been strengthened with opposition MCP and United Democratic Front (UDF) leaders confirming that Mutharika has hired people from Zambia and Zimbabwe to assist the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) to rig the forthcoming elections.

Speaking at a joint rally in Lilongwe on Sunday, 26th April 2009, the MCP President and UDF National Chairman Bakili Muluzi both expressed concern that Mutharika who is failing to contain JZU Tembo’s popularity, was putting final touches to his rigging techniques by using chiefs and people hired from neighbouring Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Muluzi who has put full weight and support on JZU Tembo as Presidential candidate for the MCP/UDF Alliance told the huge crowd that Mutharika, whose chances of winning the 19th May Elections have dwindled completely, has resorted to rigging tactics.

He said Mutharika was in such a panic that instead of articulating his so-called development agenda to the Malawi nation, he is busy discussing rigging techniques with some chiefs, DPP leaders and foreign crooks.

Of late chiefs, who are supposed to be neutral in politics, especially time like this when the nation is preparing for General Elections, have been seen in DPP colours and feasting with President Mutharika at state residences. In some areas chiefs have been bribed with new vehicles and promotions.

MCP chairman for the Central Region Lyton Dzombe told the rally that five Zimbabweans and 15 Zambians had already arrived in the country at President Mutharika’s invitation to assist his party win the elections through rigging.

Dzombe said Mutharika knows very well that he cannot beat a man of JZU Tembo’s caliber and political experience and, therefore, the only thing he can rely on is to try and play around with the elections results, something the opposition leaders maintain will not save Mutharika and his DPP parliamentary aspirants.

The MCP/UDF Alliance Presidential candidate JZU Tembo has called on Malawians to remain united and forgive one another ahead of the 19th May General Elections emphasizing that regardless of differences people may have, Malawi is one.

Tembo told the Lilongwe rally that unlike Mutharika’s fertilizer coupon system, his government will immediately implement the Universal Fertilizer Subsidy programme in order to enable everyone buy fertilizer at affordable price and thereby put to rest the current system which has only benefited the chosen few with cheap farming inputs in the past five years.

He said the MCP manifesto has been drawn with the view to change the welfare of Malawians for the better in accordance with the philosophy of the Father and Founder of the Malawi nation, Ngwazi Dr Hastings Kamuzu Banda.

—–
By Nafe Ngelezi

In real life we have not seen a human being bury himself physically. It is the living people that bury the dead. But in case of one Gwanda Chakuamba from Nsanje North Constituency, Malawians have witnessed how man can do the impossible: Killing himself, digging his own grave, placing the body in a coffin and painfully lowering it six feet down.

That is how the people from the Lower Shire and the rest of the country are describing Chakuamba after his announcement that he has decided to campaign for President Bingu wa Mutharika in a bid to win the 19th May 2009 General Elections.

Please mark Chakuamba’s own words of desperation. His New Republican Party (NRP) will support Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential candidate Bingu wa Mutharika, but as for the parliamentary contest he will still fight Esther Mchenga Nkhoma (Independent) and Frank Elias Viyazyi (DPP).

Herewith a free advice to Chakuamba, hence tomorrow he says nobody was kind enough to ring a bell close to his ears. He should take time to chat with Mark Katsonga, President of People’s Progressive Movement (PPM) who three weeks ago was preaching a similar message, and he is no longer with Mutharika.

Malawi Congress Party (MCP) has absolutely no business in Gwanda Chakuamba’s political movements. He is free to jump up or down, run forward or backward, twist left or right in these days of democracy. After all, that is the only way he can tell the world that there is freedom of association in Malawi.

However, what MCP will not agree with Chakuamba is his attempt to drag the mighty party and its President JZU Tembo into his confused state of mind. From the word ‘go’ Malawians must be reminded that MCP has never been in alliance with Chakuamba and the NRP. MCP is in alliance with the United Democratic Front (UDF).

There are other parties that had already gone into alliance with UDF and in agreement they too are supporting JZU Tembo as MCP/UDF Alliance Presidential candidate in the 19th May 2009 general elections. With or without Chakuamba this remains a winning formula for MCP, UDF and other opposition parties. Whether Chakuamba likes it or not, the JZU Tembo he is castigating today will form the next government.

How can Chakuamba claim that his supporting of Bingu wa Mutharika is in line with the wishes of Ngwazi Dr Hastings Kamuzu Banda as if the DPP was formed before the Father and Founder of the Malawi nation died? A simple reminder to the Lower Shire tired but not ‘retired’ politician is that the Ngwazi passed away in 1997 and that Mutharika’s DPP was formed eight years later. So which Ngwazi Dr H. Kamuzu Banda is Chakuamba talking about - - the ‘borrowed’ or the real NGWAZI?

Chakuamba, as JZU Tembo says, is nothing but a liar. Ngwazi Dr H. Kamuzu Banda accepted the results of the National Referendum in 1993 and the 1994 general elections respectively. How could the same Ngwazi then warn Chakuamba against letting JZU Tembo run for the country’s presidency after he had already allowed multiparty democracy? It is the people of Malawi who will vote for JZU Tembo and not one Chakuamba whose very chances of even winning the Nsanje North Constituency are at stake.

MCP is not worried with Chakuamba’s move. In fact, it is good he has gone back to DPP although Mutharika will not give back the vehicle that made him resign as Minister of Agriculture three years ago. But perhaps for curiosity’s sake, Malawians would wish to know why Chakuamba wanted to kill Ngwazi Dr H. Kamuzu Banda with that pen pistol. Otherwise, we wish him well while reminding him that President Bingu wa Mutharika is man who knows no old friend. Before we forget, Chakuamba please leave MCP and JZU Tembo alone.

BY JOE KADONGO

I can see clearly from the campaign meetings the two of you are holding that you are working under heavy panic, no wonder you have stopped saying much about your Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) manifesto, but concentrated on castigating the Malawi Congress Party (MCP) leadership, in particular the MCP/UDF Alliance Presidential candidate Right Hon JZU Tembo.

However, my purpose of writing this letter is not to dwell on what you keep saying about MCP and JZU Tembo because every Malawian know by now that time is up for you and therefore, what else can you tell the nation.

My biggest concern today is the disturbance you are causing to our children. Hon Joyce Banda this week summoned all female teachers to the Capital Hotel in Lilongwe just to threaten that those who do not come to dance for President Mutharika will face the sword if he wins on 19th May 2009.

Banda said the DPP machinery is currently busy collecting names of female teachers who do not dance for Bingu. This is very sad development because as a woman Joyce Banda should be the first person to know what this is doing to our children. Are these the same future leaders your DPP is cheating people that it will create employment opportunities for?

The big question is – Why of all days, did Joyce Banda Choose to summon these female teachers on a Monday when she could have done that during the weekend? Thjis just shows that Mutharika does not care about the children of Malawi.

I was also shocked to learn that a new DPP youth wing launched in Blantyre on Friday last week is headed by Joyce Banda’s second born son Roy Kachale from her first husband who she has appointed secretary general.

I can not understand how DPP can allow such a thing to happen. Is it because Joyce Banda is Mutharika’s running mate that it is time she can bring in all members of her family. This is the whole reason I have no time for DPP, to me it is a party full of amateurs and selfish leaders.

—-
From FROM GIBSON KWAYERA

Thousands of people from all political parties in the northern region on Sunday welcomed Malawi Congress Party (MCP) President JZU Tembo at a rally he jointly addressed with the United Democratic Front (UDF) national chairman Bakili Muluzi at the Mzuzu Upper Stadium.

JZU Tembo who is MCP/UDF Alliance Presidential candidate for the 19th May 2009 polls assured people from the north that when elected his administration will not neglect the region in the manner President Bingu wa Mutharika has done in the last five years.

Tembo reiterated his call for peace among Malawians as the nation was approaching to the forthcoming general elections, saying when voted into power the MCP government will ensure that there is food security and bring back the economy to a point where the common man in the village also nenefited.

Former President Bakili Muluzi told the rally that he joined JZU Tembo on the northern tour to demonstrate that the region was not a home to Mutharika’s Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).

A brief survey in the north indicates that JZU Tembo will win with a wide margin against Bingu wa Mutharika and other presidential candidates, and that the parliamentary race will also produce more MCP Members of Parliament that in 1994, 1999 and 2004.

The survey also revealed than people of the northern region feel rejected by President Mutharika who instead of picking Finance Minister Goodal Gondwe as running mate, he chose Foreign Affairs Minister Joyce Banda from the southern region.

Mutharika’s argument that Joyce Banda comes from the north simply because her husband, retire Chief Justice Richard Banda is from Nkhata Bay has been rejected in the whole region including his senior cabinet ministers.

A minister who sought anonymity said northerner will vote for JZU Tembo because they see political maturity in him, unlike Mutharika who within a short period has become a dictator.

“There is absolutely nothing we as cabinet or senior members of DPP can advise Mutharika,” said the Minister. “Everybody knows that by fielding Joyce Banda as running mate we have lost the entire northern region and that JZU Tembo will have a field day on the polling day.”

—
Posting by BY SUZGO NKHOTA