Former president Peter Mutharika who is also leader of the Democeatic Progressive Parry has hit hard on Tonse Alliance administration. He says government has failed to deliver on its promises to the disappointment of many Malawians
Mutharika was saying this at a Press Conference which took place at his Page House in Mangochi to discuss several issues of National interest. Flanked by top DPP officials that included George Chaponda, Chimwemwe Chipungu ,Shadreck Namalomba and others Mutharika says most of the development ventures the Tonse administration is bragging about are projects initiated by the DPP administration under his rule. He says this administration has ignored the malata-cement nitiative and community technical colleges which could turn fortunes around for Malawi.
Mutharika at the Press Conference
Mutharika says it is hypocrisy for government to claim they are pro-poor when the underprivileged continue to have no shelter at a time the malata-cement initiative has been abandoned.
He says he is aware he is being ridiculed for having pledged to turn Malawi into a Singapore but “I was serious” and had plans to transform the country through infrastructure, roads and other things.
He says the DPP is ready to come back. He says government should be interested in running affairs of the people and not persecute them. Mutharika says government is persecuting people with arrests without thorough investigations.
“This has got to stop. This country belongs to all of us,” he said.
Mutharika further says when he was state president, he appointed people without regard to regional or tribal affiliations “unlike what we are seeing now. Treat people fairly”.
Mutharika claims Tonse Alliance is not fulfilling it’s campaigning promises, including three meals a day and ensuring that no student is sent back from school due to shortage of financial hiccups.
He says Chakwera is hijacking projects which were started by his administration without acknowledging, citing the M1 road rehabilitation project as an example.
He also says the Tonse Alliance government has abandoned key programmes like the Malata and cement subsidy programme.
Mutharika says the DPP will bounce back in power and rescue the country from what he calls ‘bad government’.
He has however distanced wrangles in his party from what he has described as a bad economic situation.
Mutharika says the Democratic Progressive Party is sailing through troubled waters because it is not used to being in opposition.
He maintains that everything will be okay when the party is revamped.
President Lazarus Chakwera has called upon Malawians not to tire, but continue working hard to develop the country.
He made the remarks on Sunday during a church service at Mangochi Assemblies of God, Faith Temple.
“We only have one country regardless of our creed or race. As such let us work hard so that one day we will leave a good legacy behind,” said Chakwera.
He then asked the congregation to guard their relationship with God saying at the end of the day people will be accountable for the life they lived on earth.
In his sermon drawn from Luke Chapter 13 verses 22 to 34, Eastern Region Division Director, Jimmy Mbwana called on the faithful to work hard in developing the country and to their salvation.
Before the church service the President, who was accompanied by the First Lady Madame Monica Chakwera, was taken on a tour of the church premises including the new church building project.
The President donated K1 million towards the church building project.
The outgoing British High Commissioner David Beer is going with a bang. Beer made sure that before leaves, he empowers some of the vital organisations in the country. A donation of three vehicles has been made to Anti Corruption Bureau and Financial Intelligence Authority.
The British High Commission has donated three vehicles, two to the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) and one to Financial Intelligence Authority (FIA), to support their important work in tackling serious and organised corruption in Malawi.
Speaking when presenting the vehicles, outgoing British High Commissioner David Beer said the donation was in line with continued UK efforts to support agencies fighting against corruption.
Receiving the vehicles on behalf of ACB , Director Martha Chizuma thanked the British High Commission for the kind gesture
Barely days after Malawi Fiscal Police on Monday, July 11, 2022 pounced on Kukoma Oil Company owner Shiraz Karim home in Blantyre for money laundering worth US$4 million, new reports show that he has been invading taxes on raw materials imported into the country.
Not only that but also declaring already made products as raw materials which is theft.
Karim is taking advantage of Malawi’s state of forex shortage to steal Malawi’s hard earned taxes
Sources within Malawi Revenue Authority (MRA) say Karim has been conniving with Tonse government officials to escape taxes when importing raw materials.
This is come when the company products cooking oil has been overpriced despite government removing 16.5% Valued-Added Tax.
The company is reaping Malawians on cooking oil high prices.
Currently, one litre cooking is pegged at MK3, 800 while 2 litre MK6, 800 and 5 litre is now MK15,500.
Apart from law materials’s tax invasion has been keeping such huge some of money meant to be externalise out of the country.
Kukoma oil owner’s fiscal fraud also comes amid the country’s forex shortage.
The country’s graft body Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) has been alerted on the matter as Karim is reportedly also corrupted government officials on other government business contracts.
Shiraz however continues refusing to comment on the matter when contacted on several attempts.
Now it makes sense that past leaders did not dare to pursue zero tolerance on graft. The fight against corruption is the lonely adventure because the road towards leading to a corrupt free country is less travelled. It is the lonely road because in the quest to root out the vice, you are bound to be left alone.
As someone once said that if you want to be a good leader, at some point you are going to be misunderstood even by your own people. When President Dr Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera was waging the war against corruption he was not under any illusion that the war will be easily won. And at this point I am beginning to understand the importance of the solemn oath of office taken by the Presidents especially when they say “So help me God”. In the words of Barack Obama the road ahead is always rough and frustrating.
The difficulties that President Chakwera finds himself in is that there are people in his government who have become rich through corruption. Since they survived years without being caught they think by being close to the President they will still be protected. Ordinarily, you would not expect these people to support President Chakwera’s anti-graft drive. It is people like these who find President Chakwera’s relentless fight against corruption annoying and they would do anything to frustrate the efforts.
President Chakwera’s zeal to fight graft derives from the realization that its only few people in the country who enjoy the wealth supposed to benefit all. Speaking at the development rally in Mchinji on 7 May this year, President Chakwera said corruption is one reason poverty has been on the rise in this country. He said while corruption enriches a few people, it impoverishes many.
This is the reason the Malawi leader has been relentless in the fight against corruption from the first day he became the President but as law abiding citizen who also believes in the rule of law and separation of power, Chakwera has been patient while waiting for the course of natural justice for those suspected to have involved in corruption. These people include his Vice President Saulos Chilima who is the number one suspect on Zunneth Sattar’s list by the British National Intelligence Authority (NCA) which was later confirmed by Malawi’s Anti-Corruption Bureau. This incident changed everything and President Chakwera was left with no choice but to take away the powers he shares to the Vice President for him to be investigated without interference.
This was the defining moment in the fight against corruption as the President lived to his word that he will not shield anyone no matter how close they are to him or the position they have in the society. It was also the defining moment because like in the adage “shake the grass to see the snake”, president Chakwera’s decision showed that his deputy did not share his dream of a corrupt free Malawi as he went on assault against his boss. True to the saying that in politics nothing happens by accident, following the announcement to withhold delegated powers to the Vic President, some unprecedented developments have unfolded which suggest that the Vice President knew that the fortieth day was coming.
It appears that Chilima had the script already prepared and it was time to be put into action. Before long the Vice President started blackmailing President Chakwera. It all started on that flopped national address. Personally, I condensed the whole address into two talking points thus: proposing for the removal of the immunity of the President so that he should stand trial in case of any offense and instigating for an early election in the case the Tonse Alliance collapses. The two messages were designed to discredit President Chakwera unfortunately his calls lacked popular approval as the issues died down in a matter of days
After the two calls did not materialize into what he wished, the Vice President turned to plan B on his script that is turning to journalists to start the smearing campaign against President Chakwera, the obvious one being the newly established Platform for Investigative Journalism (PIJ). In its lack of sensitivity, PIJ decided to sacrifice their fledging career by accepting to fight Chilima’s battle’s against President Chakwera.
Even after the NCA and the ACB did not mention President Chakwera in their reports, PIJ was tried so hard to twist the tale and convince Malawians that President Chakwera was involved in the Sattar’s bribery case. This was regardless of the NCA which is the credible source of the Sattar case had already indicated in court filings that President Chakwera was not part of the corrupt activities. PIJ worked overtime to look for something in the NCA report which would link President Chakwera’s name to Sattar just to make their story relevant. They quoted the line which says: “the covert searches of his office premises established that Sattar is in possession of internal government documents relating to these contracts which should not be held by anyone outside of the Malawi government. It is not yet known how Sattar came to be in the possession of these documets, but the nature of them means his acquisition must have been facilitated by someone in the procurement process.”
In this statement there is nothing suggesting that President Chakwera influenced the awarding of the contract as PIJ wants Malawians to believe In its quest to link President Chakwera to Sattar’s case and enrich their fake narrative, PIJ turned to one of the letters which is said to be correspondence between President Chakwera and MDF Commander Vincent Nundwe. What PIJ forgot was that when the NCA was publishing their report they had already seen the letter in question but found nothing substantial in it that is why they did not bother to include President Chakwera and MDF Commander Vincent Nundwe as among those who benefitted from Sattar. Ironically even PIJ acknowledged that the two are not “named in either ACB or NCA corruption investigation.”
Like many Malawians, I found PIJ’S latest edition lacking substance. If anything they have done themselves injustice for communicating nothing to Malawians. If you write something and people are asking what you want to communicate it means there is nonsense in what you have written. This is what PIJ has done this time as people have found it difficult to make sense of what they wanted to say. However, this should not be surprising, the good journalists at PIJ have forgotten and thrown caution to the wind as they have opted to serve the interest of their pay master.
I believe in coincidence as others do, but I do not believe that what happened on Tuesday was a coincidence. The story started circulating immediately after President Chakwera has officially commissioned the commencement of the M1 Road project which will stretch from Lumbadzi to Chiweta. This was the subject which dominated conversations in the public domain but when the story came out the conversation changed from the road project to the PIJ story. It is clear that the Vice President is dragging President Chakwera in his corruption scandal so that he goes down with him. In the event that he does not succeed, which is likely, Chilima would have succeeded discrediting President Chakwera’s fight against corruption. But in all this pity PIJ for being used by Chilima, the substandard work they have produced does not reflect well on the fledging publication.
