By Staff Reporter
UTM President Dr. Dalitso Kabambe has declared that his party will never partner with the Malawi Congress Party, saying the wounds of the late Vice President Dr. Saulos Klaus Chilima are still fresh. Speaking during a closed-door executive meeting with senior UTM officials in Lilongwe on Tuesday night, Kabambe said UTM members have agreed to stay away from MCP because of how the party treated them after the 2020 Tonse Alliance.
“Kabambe told us MCP oppressed our president and President Chakwera only tasted power because of UTM, only to dump us and persecute us from left to right. MCP will not win elections in Malawi,” a senior UTM official who attended the meeting said. Members at the meeting fully backed Kabambe’s position, with one saying “MCP has been in opposition since 1994 and only won in 2020 because they partnered with us. They took the big share.”
Kabambe said the only party UTM can consider partnering with in future is the Democratic Progressive Party, describing it as UTM’s “mother party.” He argued that DPP will be difficult to dislodge even in 2030 because Professor Arthur Peter Mutharika will have left a strong legacy. He praised DPP’s 2025 win, attributing it to a strong manifesto that included free secondary education.
The UTM leader then unveiled what he called a “people-first manifesto” for 2030. Kabambe said UTM will introduce free tertiary education and every university and college student will receive a monthly upkeep allowance of K1,000,000. He also promised to remove tax on all basic needs and introduce one duty-free week every month to reduce the cost of living. On agriculture, he said under UTM a bag of maize will be bought at K1,500 because “I am an economist and I know what I am talking about.”
In what will likely spark debate, Kabambe said all Indian-owned big shops will be required to surrender their businesses to government which will then pay them and run the shops to increase government revenue. On education workers, he pledged that entry salary for primary school teachers will be K2,500,000 while secondary school teachers will start at K5,000,000. He further announced that all private hospitals will be banned under his leadership, accusing some owners who also work in government hospitals of stealing drugs to supply their own facilities.
Kabambe was clear that all these promises will be delivered without partnering with MCP. Reacting to the remarks, MCP Publicity Secretary Jessie Kabwira told Opera News “let’s wait for 2030. This is the time for DPP under Peter Mutharika. Elections or alliances are made when elections are near so we won’t comment much on the UTM narrative.”
Kabambe’s proposals have already set social media buzzing, with Malawians debating whether the K1,000,000 student allowance and K5,000,000 teacher salary promises are possible. What is clear is that UTM is drawing a hard line against MCP and positioning itself closer to DPP as 2030 approaches.
