By MacGarvern Mgawi
BLANTYRE-(MaraviPost)-The ruling Tonse Alliance is dead. It is now pretty obvious that President Lazarus Chakwera and his estranged vice Saulos Chilima are not seeing eye to eye.
The bad blood between the two coalition partners was evident recently when President Chakwera hosted Alliance partners at the Kamuzu Palace.
It is said that a furiously-stone-faced Chilima look straight into the eyes Chakwera and other Alliance partner former state President Joyce Banda if the two have never eaten Zuneth Sattar’s money at any point in their life time.
The entire room, according to our sources, went silent for several minutes.
Sattar, a London based businessman who stands accused of bribing Malawi politicians and civil servants to win lucrative contracts is said to have palm-oiled the top heirachy of all major political parties in Malawi.
Yet it is Chilima’s name that has featured highly on list the Anti-Corruption Bureau submitted to President Chakwera recently.
This has not gone down well with Chilima and his lieutenants who have reached the conclusion that the corruption charges hanging over the head of Vice President are politically motivated and are aimed at stopping him from taking over from his boss in next election as per their Tonse Agreement.
THE PLOT
As a way of removing Chilima from office, MCP operatives made a deal with a faction of DPP led by Dr. George Chaponda.
The plan was to have leader of opposition Kondwani Nankhumwa removed from his position as he is deemed to be close to Chilima.
With Chaponda as Leader of Opposition, a motion would have been tabled to have Chilima impeached for his alleged involvement with Sattar case.
This, according to our sources privy to the matter, is the reason why Speaker Catherine Gotani Hara hastened the recognition of Chaponda as new LoO as she is also positioning herself to be the next Vice President in an event Chilima was impeached.
The battle lines between Chakwera and Chilima have been drawn. The road to 2025 has begun.
It will be a nasty fight which none of the two is assured of emerging victorious in the end. They will fight to death, let us watch the drama.
