LILONGWE-(MaraviPost)-President Peter Mutharika and Speaker of Parliament Sammer Suleman met on Saturday, September 12, 2026 at Kamuzu Palace in the capital Lilongwe to iron out tensions rose the past week after Suleman bypassed Mutharika office by engaging the media on parliamentary matters.
The highly placed source at Office of President and Cabinet (OPC) told The Maravi Post that the duo met to iron out issues.
The source however did not divulge more details about the meeting between Mutharika and Suleman.
Presidential Secretary Cathy Maulidi also confirmed her boss meeting with Suleman.
“Yes, the head of stare met the Speaker on Saturday”, Maulidi confirms without giving more details.
Reacting to the development, the Human Rights Consultative Committee (HRCC) commended President Mutharika for engaging the Speaker over “the recent developments at parliament that strained the relations between the executive and parliament”.
HRCC board chairperson Robert Mkwezalamba lauded Mutharika for responding to the calls made by HRCC for the two arms to engage each others.
“While others wanted to sensationalize the matter and being confusion between the executive and the speaker, HRCC was very clear on its calls as we noted that the speaker clearly errored and there was a need to engage the president who constitute parliament before making such announcements.
“Some people were pretending to ignore that the executive was not against Parliament powers constituting the joint committees or investigating entities under the executive but the manner in which the speaker brought the matter was irregular!”
Mkwezalamba stated that their investigations revealed that the speaker never consulted anyone within Parliament including president when he announced the committees.
“It’s clear from our investigations that the Speaker was simply trying to cover up for the letter he personally wrote SFFRM over the sale of tobacco to Nyasa manufactures. Suleman needed to cover up for caught in the conflict of interest hence the announced joint committees.” Stated Mkwezalamba, “It was necessary for the Speaker to engage the president to clarify his motivation so that as head of the executive he could ably rally behind the Speaker and parliament over the investigations.
“The President has made it clear to deal with corruption as such he needs to safeguard and protect parliament from unnecessary attacks hence the reaching out to engage the Speaker,” he added.
Mkwezalamba argues further, “There is no need for anyone to demand what the two have agreed but that the outcome should be reflected in the governing party ceasing the tension.
“It’s not necessary to demand to know what the two have discussed. What happened on Saturday should have happened before the speaker called that media briefing. It’s between leaders in the same category of office. So there is nothing wrong about the meeting and the public must not intervene to know what they discussed”.
Mkwezalamba argues further, “The Speaker must allow the normal process of constituting committees in line with the standing orders of Parliament and the law, not as unilaterally previously done.
“Once that is done, the committees must be financed and supported by the executive to execute their mandates”.
Therefore HRCC and MaBLEM chair stressed that the Speaker is a servant of August House.
“Suleman as head of Legislature operates under the law by abiding to the House’ statues through a proper motion tabled, be discussed, voted upon and carried, not otherwise.
Currently, therefore is court order stopping Speaker to institute committees for 12 national matters investigations.
Leave a Reply