So let us come back to the question: what does one make out of the unprecedented quitting of senior officials from the governing party less than five months to the elections? Greed or crisis of leadership?

A bit of both. Surely greed is what is motivating these politicians to position themselves ahead of the May 20 D-Day. Forget what Sidik Mia said about ‘resting and reflecting’. He obviously has been talking with ‘some people’.

Let us look into the crystal ball. Very soon you will hear or see Sidik Mia making yet another ‘big’ announcement.

Let me hazard a guess. We discussed on these pages how the resurgent MCP could augment its electoral chances by roping in someone strong from the populous South.

After hitting a blank wall with former Chief Justice Lovemore Munlo Rev. Dr. Lazarus Chakwera might have cast his net wider. If truth be told, catching Mia can be a coup for the cleric-turned politician. Look, after the political death of the Lower Shire gladiator Gwanda Chakuamba, Mia was the next big thing in the Sena belt.

Mia’s philanthropy cannot be dismissed. PP knows this, Ama herself acknowledged the same when she told her party convention that the Mia family not only fed the delegates but decorated (for free) the convention hall itself. (By the way, that public endorsement of Mia cost one Brown Mpinganjira the contest for the party vice presidency. BJ must be having the last laugh now!)

But the quitting en masse of party members could also be a pointer of a crisis of leadership in the party. Look, a party cannot lose two vice presidents who were duly elected at a convention.

I agree with Ken Nsonda, the party’s deputy publicist, who – in a rare bout of unbridled frankness – mourned the departure of Mia. It is rare for politicians to admit that they have a crisis on their hands. In fact, Malawian politics being petty as it is, I would not be surprised if Nsonda gets censured for his frankness.

But PP must take a hard look at itself and ask the hard question: what are we not doing right? A serious party cannot allow such kind of haemorrhage of members less than five months to an election. Dismissing such exodus as good riddance to bad rubbish is foolhardy to say the least.

PP must not revel in the fool’s paradise and lie to itself that “all is well”. If truth be told, things are not looking good for the party. The party must leave Peter Mutharika and his beloved green card alone and concentrate on saving itself from implosion.

Like a house of cards, PP is crumbling. As Nsonda has suggested, the party needs to seriously go back to the drawing board and do some serious soul-searching.

Ama must be wary of those hangers-on who are lying to her that all is well because all is not well. These political journeymen will jump on the next gravy train should this implosion cost her May 20. As Oscar Wilde of old aptly put it, to lose one vice president may be unfortunate, to lose two is carelessness.

“To lose one parent

may be regarded 

as a misfortune;

to lose both looks like carelessness.”
Oscar Wilde

So what does one make out of the unprecedented quitting of senior officials from the governing People’s Party (PP) less than five months to an important election? Greed or crisis of leadership?

Let us come back to this question a little later. But first, this is my take on the PP as a party. PP has always been an experimental grouping from the beginning. Joyce Banda did not plan to found it. It was forced upon her by circumstances. Because some people wanted to maintain a dynasty in the latter days of Bingu wa Mutharika’s Democratic Progress Party (DPP) regime she was deemed a stumbling block, hence she was shoved out.

So PP was born out of convenience, no wonder it is made up of a motley crew of journeymen who themselves had issues from whence they came. You found one Brown Mpinganjira whose presidential ambitions were ship-wrecked working with one George Zulu who had to leave the Malawi Congress Party for his own reasons.

Of course pure greed forced most people to join PP after events during those three mad days of that April catapulted Joyce Banda to power. There are some political types who cannot fathom the idea of being in the opposition. They follow where power is, that is why they have been in all governments from the MCP, through the United Democratic Front (UDF) to the DPP and now PP.

Mayi Chiponda was apt when she famously, if not shamelessly, put it on record that she does not know how to be out of the echelons of power.

Save for the UDF, the two other governing parties we have had so far had been experimental. The UDF won a genuine election in 1994 to become a governing party but the DPP became one by default. (By the way, I am advisedly avoiding the word ‘ruling party’ for there is no such term in our laws).

Bingu, as we all know, cheated his way to power. He sold the UDF a dummy by meekly playing second fiddle to one Bakili Muluzi as the self-styled ‘political engineer’ sold him as ‘economic engineer’. After safely attaining keys to Plot Number 1 he called Muluzi his bluff and eloped with the presidency to the nascent DPP. If our laws were fair Bingu should have called for snap elections to regularise his mandate the day he quit the UDF.

Joyce Banda’s case was slightly different. She was forced out of the DPP because Bingu wanted to ‘keep it in the family’.

Nobody forced Bingu to settle for Joyce Banda as his choice of vice president during the 2009 elections. But the ringing endorsement he got during the elections blinded him. He thought he could play God. He toyed with the idea of elongating his tenure of office but he did not want to suffer the Muluzi ‘third term’ ‘open term’ embarrassment.

So to sustain himself in power he drafted in his reluctant younger brother, Peter, to take over from him. If it were not for his Big Brother, Peter would not have nursed any presidential ambitions. He has always been a reluctant presidential candidate, that is why he is not sure whether he is 100 percent Malawian.

But as vice president Joyce Banda had a legitimate expectation to take over from her boss when he was scheduled to retire after the May 20 polls. So she became a stumbling block to the filial succession plan. That was why she was sacrificed at the alter of pure greed and eventually became ostracised from the DPP.

But having tasted power Abiti could not go down without a fight. She cobbled together a rag tag assemblage of disgruntled politicians into PP. As fate would have it, PP suddenly ended up in government.

So PP was an experimental party from the word go. Ama formed it out of frustrations and never planned for it to be in government any time soon until fate thrust power unto her.

Now, do you remember Third World’s chart-topping song ‘Now That We Found Love What Are We Gonna Do With It’? That was exactly the scenario Joyce Banda and her experimental PP found themselves in. They suddenly had power in front of them, what were they going to do with it?

That explains the flip-flopping in policy directions we noticed once Mrs. Joyce Banda became Her Excellency the President of the Republic of Malawi. One day she is all for a review of our homophobic laws, the next she wants a referendum over the same after a backlash from the conservative society. One day she sells the infamous presidential jet and gets kudos from Western capitals for that bold decision, the next her ‘friends’ charter for her the same jet she sold. You cannot beat that!

Indeed you can also not beat her bold decision to sell the gas guzzling fleet of Mercedes Benz for her cabinet. A British minister actually praised her to the moon, saying it was unfathomable for an African leader to give up such luxury. But the next day her office confirms she was actually joking about selling the Mercs. “We are SADC chair, you know,” her spokesman reminds us. Apparently visiting African leaders love to travel in the comfort of Mercs on our rugged roads which became the butt of jokes for one cheeky Jacob Zuma.

Did our president not know she would take the rotational SADC chair one day when she told the world she was boarding off the Mercs?

But, like I said, let us be fair with her, hers has always been an experimental, if not accidental, presidency, so the flip flopping in policy direction was inevitable. An experiment and an accident are what they are – experiment and accident, one does not plan for their outcome.

One of the great tragedies afflicting our continent is that the story of Africa and Africans has, from the period of antiquity up till very recently, been told by the ancient Greeks, Arabs and Europeans of all manner and persuasions. This is one of the main reasons why Africa has a uniformly bad press throughout history. It has always been the case of giving a dog, in this case, a whole continent, a bad name with the expressed purpose of hanging it. Africa has been hanged over and over again and it does not appear that there is any redemption in sight. This is in spite of the fact that some parts of the African story is being told by Africans on both sides of the Atlantic. One of such voices and an authoritative one at that, is Wole Soyinka who in his recently published book, Harmattan Haze in an African Spring, addressed the subject of Africa from an entirely African perspective.

As at now, there are not many voices louder than Soynika’s and whatever he has to say about any subject is well worth listening to and when it is about Africa, there cannot be many better placed than him to speak. This collection of essays dealing with diverse aspects of life in Africa and her place in the world, is a very important contribution to the subject of Africa and it is unfortunate, if not tragic, that important as it is there are not many people especially in Africa who will have access to this book. This is because book readership across Africa is low, perhaps, abysmally so and those who will have the opportunity of reading this book, a significant percentage will struggle to come to terms with understanding the message contained within its pages, not because of any obscurity on the part of the author but because of the sophistication of the language deployed within its pages. Many who will read this book will do so with the expectation of getting answers to a host of questions about Africa and many of them will be very disappointed that in the end, they will come away with many more questions than answers. The author has raised many issues but because they are about Africa, the answers could not be provided by him or perhaps, by any one else, not because of a lack of powerful mental effort but because there are no answers, or at least any answers that have the capacity to give satisfaction.

There are now many people, perhaps too many, who are optimistic about the future of Africa and it may well be because her extensive and as at now unquantifiable natural resources and youthfulness of her burgeoning population, Africa will come good in the end. As things stand however, it is difficult to put forward any real grounds to the optimism that is being expressed about Africa’s future. For now, Africa is battling on many fronts: economic backwardness leading to widespread poverty (in the midst of plenty), corrupt leadership, rickety political structures, poor and steadily declining level of investment in education, technological backwardness and a lack of input into the sweeping phenomenon that is globalisation. Soyinka has shown an awareness of these and other problems but it is apparent that before we can take Africa into the future as we need to do, we have to confront her very uncomfortable past, a past which has been dominated by the enslavement of her peoples.

The passion with which Soyinka discusses the subject of slavery suggests that it is important for us as Africans to come to terms with this painful issue. How is it that Africa has survived the steady and massive haemorrhage of her people who for many centuries have been taken away, first across the Sahara to the East and then also to the West across the Atlantic in the greatest forced migration the world has ever seen? How has Africa been able to sustain the loss of so many of her people over such a long period time? Perhaps, the truth is that Africa has in fact not survived the slave trades and when colonisation was added to the mix, it is no wonder that Africa has been brought to her knees. People many think of the slave trade as being expensive in terms of labouring humanity but more important, there is the severe loss of thinking humanity which Africa had had to deal with over such a long period but this aspect of slavery has received very little attention and yet it exists!

Added to the loss inflicted on Africa by slavery and colonisation is the imposition of the monotheistic, Abrahamic religions by the slave traders from East and West, bringing with them strange Christian and Islamic sensibilities and sensitivities which continue to clash with each other and with the indigenous mores which had held sway in Africa since the dawn of time. As with the slave trades, Soyinka has been careful to point out that Africans have been both the victims of and collaborators with their tormentors to whom they have lost body and soul. The seeds which the slavers have planted on the soil of Africa have taken root and are yielding fruit of questionable value, largely because of their intolerance of each other and of course the religious values which satisfied the religious aspirations of African peoples long before the arrival of the slave traders. The result for contemporary Africa is a virulent form of self loathing that has led to the rejection of their African heritage by the adherents of the imported faiths. Whilst pointing out the strengths of African religious philosophies, especially of the Orisa tradition associated with the Yoruba people however, Soyinka ever the secularist is, in spite of his own adoption of Ogun the Yoruba god of metallurgy (and patron of creativity) as a patron saint, does not recommend a return to the worship or veneration of those neglected if not rankly abused ancient gods. He however argues, unconvincingly in my opinion, for the re-institution of traditional African medical practices. There was undoubtedly, a time when Africans responded to disease conditions using their own resources but there is no evidence to suggest that they were any more successful in this endeavour than their European, Arabic or indeed, any other traditional medical practitioners. Indeed, the history of the world is liberally littered with the debris of heroic but ineffectual healing practices and it was not until the recent adoption of a scientific approach to medicine that mankind has been able to come to grips with the problems created by diseases. It is no wonder that life expectancy, especially in the developed countries, has increased by close to 30 years within the last 100 years. This increase has owed less to new and efficacious drugs than to public health measures which have made prevention more prominent than cure. Further scientific investigations of the human body, mind and immediate environment are set to bring even more spectacular benefits to mankind. The future of medicine lies in laboratories all over the world where these investigations are being carried and one of the worries which Africa has to deal with is that precious little such research is being carried out in laboratories situated on the African continent by scientists of African descent.

Three years ago, starting from Tunisia in North Africa, young and disgruntled Arabs, in response to the self-immolation of a desperate fruit seller, took their future in their hands and revolted with patchy success against the dictatorial regimes which had been holding them down for years. The revolt, dubbed the Arab Spring, is an ongoing process and has thrown several Arab countries, notably Libya, Egypt and Syria into serious and bloody turmoil. It is yet too early to predict the eventual outcome of the Arab spring but the hopes that this phenomenon would spread south of the Sahara has remained unfulfilled. As the title of Soyinka’s book suggests, all that has filtered down south is a harmattan haze which is obscuring everything and blanketing the hopes of a much needed African Renaissance with a fine but tenacious blanket of sand. Even when a ray of sunlight somehow manages to penetrate the gloom and raises a glimmer of hope as in the case of the independence of South Sudan after many years of Sudanese state terrorism and ethnic cleansing if not genocide, trouble has not been far behind. Even as I write, South Sudan the world’s youngest state is in the throes of violent clashes which have the potential of escalating into full scale civil war as two sides fight over the crude oil found in Unity State, in the manner of dogs fighting over a bone. Just south of South Sudan the Christians and Muslims in the Central African Republic are girding up for a senseless religious war, the kind of war which would have been unthinkable before the arrival of those faiths on the African continent. This and other conflicts now convulsing Africa prompt the question of when Africa will begin to provide sensible answers to the myriad questions plaguing the continent.

Soyinka’s book raises a lot of questions about Africa’s past but important as these questions are, the relentless march of science and ensuing technology is so strong and rapid that the answers to the questions raised by the past may no longer be relevant to the future. Given the example of the mobile phone which is used in so many ingenious ways, Africa has shown that she is ready to embrace and use technology in her own inimitable way. It has now become clear that the only way that the optimism now surrounding Africa can be realised any time in the future is to move away from the chimera of religion to the solidity of technology. Given the history of Africa however, how in the world, can this shift be engineered?

First, when talking of DPP there is an old saying that, “after kissing the devil, always count your teeth.” In the history of Malawi former president Bingu Wa Muntharika died on 5th April 2012 and the funeral of a very important man was hidden as a top secret from all Malawians and if you recall the events on 6th April 2012, you will remember then Information Minister Patricia Kaliatii told the nation in categorical terms that she had just spoken to President Bingu Wa Muntharika and that he was okay. This is the extent to which people can lie.

The Mid Night Six comprising then minister of Information Patricia Kaliati, minister of Health Kalirani, minister of Local Government Henry Mussa, deputy minister of Foreign Affairs Kondwani Nankhumwa, minister of Sports Symon Vuwa Kaunda and deputy minister in the OPC Nicholas Dausi, called for a news conference at around 9.10pm the same Friday April 6 while hiding the secret deceased President Bingu Wa Muntharika was flown to South Africa as Daniel Phiri

Our simple pieces of advice to Malawians is to beware of DPP, don’t be fooled for the second time as DPP will remain a party of blood and danger to ordinary citizens , they believe in malice and deceit to propel their motives forward no wonder they manufacture statements to make you confused as to what exactly is happening. If they lied about the funeral of Bingu Wa Mutharika do you think they cannot lie again? Do you think they can fail to lie that Peter Muntharika is in good health while it is confirmed he had been admitted for a month in America amid sorting out his American citizenship? To DPP, politics means lying through your teeth but this is not what you need in a civilised nation,

Secondly, Malawians must never forget that DPP government ordered police to murder the protesting citizens in broad day light as it happened on July 20, 2011 when 20 young men were ruthlessly gunned down by those who were supposed to protect them and, yet, their only crime was to protest against bad governance. Afterwards they bought beer and danced with thugs while everyone was mourning. The deceased were later on labelled as “thieves” in attempt to mask the atrocious crimes against humanity, only a foolish person can trust such a party to lead the nation again.

Thirdly, DPP wrecked your economy, their business was to lie to all citizens that the economy was greatly improving while they borrowed money from MRA and other banks to show off that the reserves were swelling, you heard for yourselves the confessions of then Minister of Finance Ken Lipenga on how they forged figures to fool you that the economy was doing well,these are the same people , lurking in darkness as the devil waiting for you to be convinced that they have changed, be careful Malawians. Pause and shake your head looking back, you will remember there was no fuel in this country, you will remember there was no petrol in this country, you will remember there was no relationship between Malawi and many countries who are supposed to be development partners and this is what you can think of DPP. You don’t need common sense to know this is a party of failures, crooks and liars to make you believe you will be alright while you know you suffered.

Fourthly , whether you are working or doing business you need freedom and peace of mind, you don’t need to be often called names just because you take a different view from a governing party. But DPP thugs including Patricia Kaliati who know nothing about leadership, dignity and respect have an experience of insulting people who were critical of then DPP government, even former leader of the party Bingu wa Mutharika called anybody with a different view, including donors, stupid. You don’t need such kind of government in this 21st century.

As for current DPP President Peter Muntharika, you all well know how heartless this man can be. Every citizen must surely be disheartened to learn that he bought four houses dubiously at a price of 3 million kwacha each, we are talking of houses which costs 100 million each. He has no common sense and kindest heart to consider what he did was broad day robbery, he has refused to return them to satisfy his greediness. Not only that, this is a man who took another hobby of flying in army helicopters at the exploit of being a brother of a president while Malawians were grounded with no fuel and no forex .

Now he is clinging to the USA citizenship like a baby holding on to a plastic dummy, he says he loves Malawi while his heart is in United States of America. He is not brave as a man can be to show his love by completely cutting himself off from American citizenship, this is how he wants to take Malawians for a ride. But surely if a truthful man loves you, he cannot say, “I will marry you but I will be spending some nights with another woman accross the road.” This is what Peter Muntharika is doing, he is clinging to USA citizenship but also trying to look like he loves Malawi for real.

Malawians beware! Just like he spied on lectures this is another dictator in the waiting, your life will be worse off and you may end up relocating to other African countries, but you can avoid this by not voting for DPP. You dont need to live in a country where radical university students who want to engage in politics would find their heads being butchered and thrown on a cold concrete in the manner it happened to one Robert Chasowa of the Polytechnic. You need freedom , peace, conscience and humanity , you need to be not called names, you need to be respected whether you are from north , central or south it doesn’t matter and you need leaders who will be honest with you whether things are good or bad, so far you have Her Excellency Dr Joyce Banda, count yourself blessed, she will never pretend therefore do the right thing! see

Trial Chamber V(b) of the International Criminal Court (ICC)  has postponed the trial of President Uhuru Kenyatta scheduled for February 5 indefinitely.

The Trial Chamber will hold a status conference on Wednesday 5 February 2014 to address the issues raised by the parties and participants in relation to the Prosecution request for a 3-month adjournment.

On 12 December 2013, the ICC Prosecutor filed a Notification of the removal of a witness from the Prosecution’s witness list and application for an adjournment of the provisional trial date, to which the Defence and the Legal representatives of victims subsequently replied in writing.

Mr Kenyatta is charged, as an indirect co-perpetrator, with five counts of crimes against humanity consisting of murder, deportation or forcible transfer, rape, persecution and other inhumane acts allegedly committed during the post-election violence in Kenya in 2007-2008. Charges were confirmed on 23 January 2012, and the case was committed to trial before Trial Chamber V(b).

The African Union and many of its leaders had petetioned against this  case feeling strongly that ICC was created to target and intimidate African leaders.

BLANTYRE(MaraPost)–The Mangochi first grade magistrate court has sentenced two men to 9 years imprisonment with hard labor for raping a 14 year old girl, as five other suspects involved in the gang rape are still at large.

The girl faced horrific event on the night of September 2 last year.

The two men, 21 year old Alibu Imran Michael and 24 year old Alick Jafali raped the girl when she was coming from an initiation ceremony.

The state prosecutor Efford Kamphonje told the court today that Alibu was the first to rape the girl and later on invited his friends to join him at undisclosed fee.

In his ruling, Magistrate Jack Njikho said it was inhuman and traumatizing for seven men to rape a young girl one after another, hence giving a stiff punishment to deter would be offenders.

Njikho told the court that he reduced the punishment from 12 years as indicated in the penal code to 9 years because the two men did not waste the court’s time by pleading guilty to the charge.

The girl’s attracted attention from different quarters in November last year as nothing seemed to be done to bring to justice the culprits.

The delay forced the Malawi Women Association to petition the Minister of Gender and Child Affairs, The District Commissioner, The Magistrate, The Victim Support Unit and the Chief of Police.

“Its two months since the seven boys gang-raped a 14 year old girl, in Mangochi and no one has been arrested. Please sign the petition to compel the Malawi Government to bring the offenders to justice. The survivor knows the rapists by their names but the Malawi authorities have done nothing about it.  

“Currently, the girl has no access to support or counseling services.  Having been traumatised by the horrific event she continues to being humiliated, about the rape, both at school and in the community,” Chief Executive Officer for Malawi Women Association wrote on social network in a bid to woo support.

The relationship between South Sudan and the United Nations (UN) is souring during a critical time of conflict and mass death inside the world’s newest country. 

After a month of fighting between President Salva Kiir’s government and rebels loyal to former Vice President Riek Machar, the UN suddenly finds itself under verbal attack from South Sudan.

 An Information Ministry spokesman said the UN has no respect for the government, while Kiir’s spokesman, Ateny Wek Ateny, on Wednesday said the UN is sheltering armed rebels in its camp in Bor, the capital of Jonglei state. Kiir also accused the top UN representative in South Sudan of wanting to be co-president.  

In an exclusive interview with Al Jazeera’s Jamal ElShayyal, Kiir discussed his strained relationship with the UN. “We are the 193rd member state of the UN,” he said. “There can be no way that we can be enemies to the UN. It is the individuals within the UN system who are creating problems. If we talk about what is the role of the UN, yes they have the mandate which they are here for, whether they are dong it effectively or not… That is their mandate…They allowed the rebels: either they took them by force or they gave them their vehicles and then they came and mounted these vehicles with machine guns to fight our forces with.” 

Kiir replied, “Not the whole UN; it is this group that are here with us…”

“So UN staff in Juba and South Sudan have given tacit support to the rebels?”

“Of course,” Kiir said.  

Kiir also rejected UN allegations that his forces may have committed war crimes. “I am confident that our forces acted according to the international laws,” he said. “It is not now that we are ruling our own country that we are going to abuse our own people. I will not accept that. What I do not like is these blanket accusations. ‘Both sides have done this’ is a very vague term. It was Riek Machar who destroyed Bor.”

Ariane Quentier, UN Mission in South Sudan spokesperson in Juba, declined to comment on Kiir’s accusations. “He’s been saying this about us for the past five days.” 

>Watch and embed the interview at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5p4a5MtVV8g. 

Daison Kadango argues why DPP, UDF and MCP should only hope for the second prize as Joyce Banda will sweep the elections.

President Joyce Banda tipped decisive victory on May 20 when Malawi goes to the Polls. All indications are that she will be declared and confirmed the winner on 21st May.

Bare truth can be sour, Banda will leave the competitors humiliated and licking their wounds after the decisive defeat.

If truth has to be told without self-deceit or self-grandiosity, Joyce Banda is way ahead of her armature political competitors. She is facing contenders with no agenda, no vision, no relevant proven experience and no charisma.

Joyce Banda is competing with men whose speeches are hugely hollow, nothing exciting. They are coming from the political wilderness hoping to land into a prestigious job of a Head of State by some heavenly miracles or divine intervention of departed souls.

They are coming to the Presidential Polls riding retired horses left behind by disgraced founders who terribly failed to uphold their own political ideals for the benefit of the masses trapped in abject poverty. All of them left Malawians poorer; or they delayed the journey to prosperity. Their parties evoke bitter memories of yesteryears.

None has so far confidently articulated how they would transform Malawi from donor-dependency to self-sufficiency through basic economic principles built on reality prevailing on the ground.

Malawi is the poorest country in the world enjoying the highest unemployment and illiteracy rates. Very low skills base. These men would have catapulted themselves by articulating such challenging legacy and demonstrate how they will turnaround the current situation. Instead, they are singing the obvious with cash-gate as a chorus.

Metaphorically, Banda’s opponents would be likened to political dandruffs. Dead dry skin on the scalp add nothing to life and vitality.Empty paragraphs with no better alternative story to tell.

Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is standing on a very shaky ground since the Party President Professor Peter Mutharika and other senior party members are answering treason charges arising from events that followed when President Bingu wa Mutharika suddenly died of cardiac arrest. Senior members of the DPP attempted to conceal death as they conspired to execute an illegal and unconstitutional take-over of the government with Peter Mutharika to be sworn in as the care-taker President.

DPP history speaks for itself. It offers very shallow reading. It was not established out struggle to curve a better Malawi but rather one man’s personal greed. Dr Bingu wa Mutharika was picked from the street by President, Bakili Muluzi, who was reluctant to step down when his term of office was coming to an end in terms of the Constitution. Twice he had tried to introduce the Bill in Parliament that would allow him serve the third term. On both occasions the stratagem failed.

Bakili Muluzi then sought to govern the country from behind the curtains. He bypassed bona-fide successors within his Party, UDF, and went to pick unknown somebody from the dusty street and made him a party presidential candidate for the looming elections. He campaigned relentlessly to convince the nation that the unknown candidate was the best thing that would happen to Malawi because the man was well-schooled on matters of development and economics. He would be an economic engineer. Muluzi preached.

On the 24th May 2004 Bingu wa Mutharika became the President of the Republic of Malawi on UDF ticket to the displeasure of many executive members in the party who felt betrayed as their aspirations to rise within the party ranks were thwarted.

Few months later, in February 2005, Bingu walked out of the party. He bit the hand that had fed him. He dumped UDF and established DPP. In short, he stole the Presidency from the majority that put him in power. He claimed that he partied ways with UDF because of corruption. The nation, regional and world leaders believed him.

There were mass defections as UDF members jumped ship to a newly formed DPP. Bingu partially succeeded in paralyzing the Party that spent so much time and resources to put him in power. The character that would emerge again few years later when he dumped his Vice President, Joyce Banda who had campaigned so hard and delivered overwhelming majority vote to DPP in 2009.

This is the first installment of Daison Kadango. Follow him as he argues why he believes Malawians will forgive Joyce Banda on Cash-gate and give her overwhelming vote on May 20.

The United Nations’ AIDS taskforce and human rights groups plan to take Malawi to court over its anti-gay laws according to news reports.

The legislation has strained relations between President Joyce Banda’s government and international donors, whose aid is desperately needed.

UNAIDS, the Malawi Law Society and local rights groups will ask the high court on March 17 to overturn as unconstitutional laws banning same-sex relationships.

They will also challenge the convictions of three men jailed in 2011. Homosexuality carries a maximum prison sentence of 14 years in the southern African country.

“Our argument is that as long as same-sex relationships are consensual and done in private no one has business to get bothered,” law society spokeswoman Felicia Kilembe said

Africa’s Scenario

In Africa, it is a common phenomenon for almost every election to be declared free and fair in other spheres, and not, by other spheres. Unfortunately in most cases, because of sketchy facts, it is so difficult to conclusively vindicate one or the other camp.

But there have been many instances where self-declared winners of elections in Africa have hastily demanded to be sworn in office despite clear evidence that they in fact did not win the elections.

These unfortunate realities articulate an interesting case study regarding the democratic order.

Focusing on Malawi:

In Malawi, the following is worth noting:

• It is undeniable that the Malawi Congress Party (MCP) liberated every Malawian from the oppressive colonial rule. It is also undeniable that the MCP under the “real Ngwazi” Dr Hastings Kamuzu Banda built a vibrant economic and social landscape which elevated Malawi from ground zero to the world map.
• Those who will care to remember will agree that in the early 1990s you could buy a British sterling with 16 Malawi kwacha and a meagre 2 Malawi kwacha in 1970s would buy same.
• In 1994, the winds of democratic change put Bakili Muluzi and the United Democratic Front (UDF) to the helm of political power as the second democratically elected president of Malawi after beating MCP through the ballot box.
• Bakili Muluzi was re-elected in 1999, amid allegations of vote rigging. What is important to mention though, is that the vibrant developmental machinery of Malawi which was implemented by MCP started to steadily disintegrate during Bakili’s tenure as head of state.
• In 2004, through Bakili’s UDF, late Bingu wa Mutharika was elected president. He later formed his own Party, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). It is also important to mention that during his first term; Bingu did exceptionally well as president.
• It was said that during the first term of Bingu, Malawi was “the second fastest growing economy in the world after Qatar”. 

Whether this is commendable or not, is debatable as some people attribute to the fact that Bingu’s DPP being a minority party in parliament, he was hiding his true colours to safeguard his tenacious  position.

As if to prove this point, Bingu’s second term was a nightmare, characterised by disregard of the rule of Law, intolerance, nepotism and arrogance. Reports were awash in local media that Bingu accumulated himself a whooping MwK61 billion within his tenure.

More recent revelations, from the now ruling People’s Party (PP) suggest that Bingu and his DPP are the architects of Cash-     Gate and they  plundered a whooping MwK191 billion. Whether that is true or not, is another debate.

Unlike Bakili, we are told that Bingu was a PhD (Economics) and by virtue of that, one would logically and reasonably assume that this man would have been a champion of the economic advancement of Malawi.

But what Malawians experienced, especially in his second term’s presidential tenure, is nothing short of appalling.  And if his academic qualifications were indeed what we were told were, then there are two reasonable inferences one can deduce from all this:

• either the man was simply too greedy and did not care (nuts) about the people of Malawi and just wanted to plunder and accumulate all the country’s wealth for himself;
• or  he was, putting it mildly,  an economics buffoon.

On 7^th April 2012, Joyce Banda assumed the position of state president of Malawi as a result of the death of Dr Bingu wa Mutharika. It is important to mention that Joyce Banda was not elected to the position but merely assumed the position as dictated by the law of the land.

Needless to say, her administration has miserably failed (though she denies it) because of rampant corruption and deliberate plunder of the treasury under her own guard.

She, is as we speak, concocting  all sorts of ludicrous excuses she can, to distance herself from this scandal. For instance her illogical insistence that she has unveiled and is tirelessly fighting corruption.

This excuse alone, is ambiguously vague,  contradictory in the light of the “discovery of Cash-gate” and does not hold water at all.

What she should be reminded is that, this has been happening under her nose and as the Captain of the Ship all the responsibility of Capitol Hill cash-gate scandal squarely falls on her shoulders – PERIOD.

Conclusion:

In a nut shell, it can unambiguously and reasonably be concluded that the strong and vibrant economic landscape which the MCP led government under Ngwazi Dr Hastings Kamuzu Banda built since independence, has been vandalized and plundered by successive corrupt and clueless governments; resulting indescribable misery to all Malawians especially to the rural populace as basic human needs which every Malawian once took for granted, are hard to find.

Indeed, to every Malawian, except a few who were linked to the ruling elites, things have changed for the worse since 1994.

If I were asked, what legacies – with respect to Malawians social well-being, did the three previous presidents leave and what about the incumbent president; I would respond – without fear of contradiction – as below:

It is my studied opinion that, what will each of the four presidents and their administrations will best be remembered for, is as below:

Ngwazi Dr Hastings Kamuzu Banda:

Despite the ills talked about often in isolation with respect to Kamuzu’s administration – which should be analysed in perspective, Ngwazi Dr Hastings Kamuzu Banda will always be remembered as the father and founder of the Malawi Nation; who through the MCP liberated every Malawian from the oppressive colonial rule. Then he went on to  elevate Malawi from ground zero onto the world map through his vibrant economic and social landscape policies.

Bakili Muluzi:

Bakili is undeniable the pioneer of today’s brand of “personalised politics” in Malawi which has contributed absolutely nothing, except systematically dividing the peace loving people of Malawi on the basis of regions, ethnics and religious beliefs. 

Bakili will also be remembered for his quest to erase Kamuzu’s legacy an exercise he dismally failed to achieve.

Bingu wa Mutharika

Late Dr Mutharika left an unenviable  legacy of being a president who killed himself as a result of his administration. At the time he had cardiac arrest, like all the hospitals in Malawi, there was no proper medical facilities at Kamuzu Central Hospital, if any at all.

Chances are,  if Kamuzu Central Hospital had proper medical facilities, the man would not have been flown to South Africa, already dead, for “medical attention”. It is  probable that he would have been alive today.

Joyce Banda

Joyce Banda will leave a legacy of a person who has been actively involved in all the four parties which have been in government since independence in Malawi.

This poses a serious question on her judgement of political affiliation: is it based on political policies or is she a mere opportunist?

Furthermore, based on the information at hand regarding cash gate (if proved to be true), her administration will be remembered by nepotism, corruption and the deliberate plundering of treasury. The deliberate plunder of treasury alone, in other countries, would have constituted to crimes against humanity.

To wind up, and revert to the issue of democracy versus freedom; the administrations of Bakili, Mutharika and Joyce Banda have systematically driven Malawi into a political, economic and social abyss which the citizenry have suffered and endured for so long a time. 

And all  this shows that democracy, which is religiously advocated by America, has not brought to the ordinary Malawian, the much anticipated freedom, as promised.

* Dr Clement Chalera is an independent political analyst

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of The Maravi Post’s  editorial policy