It has been announced that the oldest political party in the country, the Malawi Congress Party (MCP), has not been paying its City Rates since 2001 to which the dues have accumulated to a cool Two Hundred and Sixty Seven million Kwacha (MK267 million). The party has been given a 30-day ultimatum to settle the dues failing which the city says sheriffs will impound the party’s Headquarter structures situated at the capital’s City Center.
The manner in which the issue has been brought forth to the public clearly parades some naked propaganda aimed at frustrating the main opposition party in the country. While the highlighted issue has not been denied by the MCP, the debt has been publicized by the Lilongwe City Council authorities in a rather strange way.
Instead of officially writing the MCP to issue it warnings on the same, as a normal procedure would demand, the LLCA went straight into the media stream to hang the issue on the laundry line apparently fixed by propaganda material. This apparently indicates that someone at the City Council is hunting for an opportunity to prove their relevance to the DPP ranks or is being used as a contrivance to achieve some cheap political mileage. This act can only be best described as witch-hunting aided by political vendors.
Further escalating the suspicion that this scandal is propaganda-bred, the ruling DPP operatives have gone full throttle ridding on this wave to demonize the MCP and its leader Lazarus Chakwera of being irresponsible to their obligations hence ‘unfit to rule the country’.
But obviously, the issue of MCP’s debts, as emanating from unpaid City Rates, is a matter between the party and the City Council alone. Where the DPP is coming in, are the glaring propaganda holes that need punching.
The unfortunate Chakwera has only been leader of the party since late 2013. On the other hand, the MCP’s (and not Chakwera’s) tax default records are said to be accruing from as early as 2001. How Chakwera is being attacked as a waste of Malawi’s expectation in as far as leadership of the country is concerned due to the said ‘tax evasion’ is another clear testimony of DPP’s desperate attempts to shoot down this, otherwise, potential State President’s political feat.
But Malawi is too enlightened to be swayed by empty propaganda like this one. Well informed Malawians are further aware that in attempts to buy more time, the DPP is throwing a number of propaganda simply to shift public’s focus on its struggling leadership which is currently lacking sustainable clues to join the swinging economic ends of the country.
The DPP is, in this case, creating a scapegoat which, when it fails to fix the economy, the public would be hoodwinked to blame the MCP for defaulting taxes hence bad economy. But that excuse will be too naïve and this is why we are encouraging the DPP to simply throw away its witch-hunting mission and focus on fixing matters while observing the power autonomy in the country’s operating system.
Perhaps as a reminder, the DPP and all its contrivances may wish to know that the MCP has outstanding claims of damages from the 1993-94 Operation Bwezani where forces royal to the legitimate transition body that facilitated the coming in of multi-party democracy bombed down its very Headquarters being placed under controversy today.
The claims, which government ought to pay in billions now, well surpassing the said defaulted City Rates value.
Furthermore, since the bombing of the facilities, government has not made any follow ups on usability of the place. Isn’t it still a war-ravaged zone that needs assessment first?