Nthanda Times

Day: June 10, 2024

  • Fear looms as VP Chilima’s Aircraft to Mzuzu goes missing

    A Malawi Defense Force Aircraft carrying the country’s Vice President Dr’ Saulos Chilima and other eight people has gone missing enroute to Mzuzu.

    Secretary to the Office of the President and Cabinet Colleen Zamba has confirmed the development in a statement.

    According to the statement, the plane left Lilongwe at 9:17am for Mzuzu where the Vice President was supposed to connect to Nkhata Bay to attend the burial ceremony of the country’s former Minister of Justice and Attorney General Ralph Kasambara who died on Friday in Lilongwe.

    “The Malawi Defense Force Aircraft that left Lilongwe today, Monday 10th June 2024 at 09:17 hours, carrying the Vice President, the Right Honorable Dr. Saulos Klaus Chilima, and nine others, failed to make its scheduled landing at Mzuzu International Airport at 10:02,” reads part of the statement.

    VP Chilima captured recently at Kamuzu International Airport on his return from Korea

    Zamba indicated that efforts by aviation authorities to contact the Aircraft since it went off the radar have not been successful.

    Meanwhile, the State President Dr. Lazarus Chakwera has since cancelled his trip to Bahamas, and ordered national and regional agencies to conduct a search for the Aircraft.

    “The Commander of the Malawi Defense Force, General Valentino Phiri, has since informed His Excellency Dr. Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera of the incident and the President has since cancelled is scheduled departure for the Bahamas and ordered all regional and national agencies to conduct an immediate search and rescue operation to locate the whereabouts of the aircraft,” reads the statement.

    Meanwhile, Government Spokesperson Moses Kunkuyu says it is government’s prayer and plea that all people in the plane should be found alive.

  • DPP accused of ignoring its principal campaigner Hope Chisanu in death

    Some Malawians are accusing the former governing Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) for allegedly betraying the spirit of the fallen radio personality and apparently the party’s sympathizer Hope Chisanu.

    Late Chisanu while working for MBC TV
    Malawians feel DPP needed to give Chisanu a dignified send-off

    The concerned citizens say they expected the party to take a role in repatriation of the remains of Chisanu from the United States of America (USA) where he died a few days ago.

    The accusation follows a plea Vivian Chisale posted on her Facebook page asking for help from the people to bring Chisanu’s body to his village in Zomba for burial.

    Chisanu was a fierce campaigner of the DPP using the public broadcaster – the Malawi Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) television and radio where he worked.

    But some people feel the party has demonstrated that it does not have any business Chisanu anymore now that he is dead.

    However, in an interview on Monday, DPP spokesperson Shadric Namalomba said it was not true that Chisanu campaigned for the party.

    Namalomba argued that the deceased was simply doing his duties as a public officer.

    “Truth must be told that late Hope (may his soul rest in eternal peace) was a public officer working for a government entity, MBC. MBC, just as is the case, now covers functions of the seating Head of State. Late Hope was therefore not campaigning for DPP using MBC. He was just doing his work as an employee of MBC assigned to cover functions of Head of State then. So lecture to those sections of society that do not know the existence of separation of powers, the mandate of MBC etc,” he said.

    However, Namalomba said DPP is equally empathetic to the demise of Hope and the financial challenges the family has encountered to repatriate his remains.

    He disclosed that some DPP members have mobilized resources, which will be given to the family to bring back the remains of Hope back home.

    “Otherwise MBC and Chakwera leadership should be held responsible for the death of Hope. Why did they fire a person just because he served the previous regime? Everyone has the right and freedom to employment and economic opportunities. Late Hope was unfairly dismissed from MBC. A government that campaigned on rule of law, is at the forefront breaking the same laws it promised to protect. What a hypocrite government. It is apparent that this Tonse government is not a government of the people for the people. Come 2025, DPP is restoring this country to settings that all Malawians shall be guaranteed their rights and privileges in accordance with the Supreme law of the land, the Constitution,” said Namalomba.

    [END]

  • MEC maintains manual methods in polls management to boost stakeholders’ trust

    The Malawi Electoral Commission says despite the recently procured Election management devices (EMDs) having capacity to transmit results, it will still stick to manual procedures.

    MEC Commissioner Richard Chapweteka disclosed this on Friday when it received the last consignment of EMD’s comprising a total of 720 as it gets set to start registration of voters from September this year.

    Additionally, 650 power banks are expected to be in next week by road from South Africa and will be received at the Dedza border by MEC and all the relevant stakeholders.

    The electoral body is migrating from Biometric voter registration kits (BVRK’s) to EMDs, as the former were procured around 2016 and with technological improvements, they are becoming obsolete.

    Chapweteka: We don’t want to go into issues of trust

    Chapweteka explained that the BVRKs were heavy to carry while EMDs are hand held devices and easy to carry especially in hard to reach areas without any challenge.

    The gadgets will be used for registration, verification and transferring of voters and further have capacity for results management.

    However despite the devices having capacity to do transmission of results, the Commission has opted to use manual methods in election management due to trust issues which arise during polls.

    “We find it difficult to do that for the time being, maybe in future but for the time being because I don’t think Malawians are ready to accept that. So we don’t want to go into issues of trust, questioning each other that probably you’re trying to manipulate figures through the electronic transmission so that’s all we’re trying to do now.

    Election preparations: The last consignment captured at Kamuzu International Airport

    “But maybe in future when probably the public understands that we cannot continue doing manual transmission; maybe then we’ll be able to, because we already have the capacity to do that but for now we’ll just do manual transmission.”

    MEC will undertake demonstrations to test the equipment before commencing registration in September this year.

    UTM’s Regional Director of elections Alexander Lungu said as a party they are happy with how things are progressing

    “Our expectation is very high that the General election I think will be okay”