Controversial National Governing Council (NGC) member of the erstwhile governing Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), Ken Msonda, has yet again stirred a hornets’ nest by saying Malawi would have been in worse economic situation if his party was still in power.

Msonda made the sentiments during an exclusive interview with the privately-owned Zodiak Broadcasting Station (ZBS) on Monday evening.

He said Malawians should count it a big blessing that successive global shocks such as the Covid-19 pandemic, the Ukraine war, Tropical Cyclone Freddy and the cholera outbreaks took toll on the country in the absence of DPP, claiming things could have been out of hand by now.

“I always tell people that the situation could have been worse if these natural disasters were happening when DPP was still in power. Ndipo a Mutharika sakanakwanitsa, akanakomoka,” he said.

He commended President Dr. Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera for ‘steering the ship made rickety by the DPP administration’ to safety amidst economic constraints.

Msonda said it was wrong for some sections of the society to attribute the economic problems the country is going through to Chakwera, arguing the ‘incumbent Head of State assumed power when disasters were already weighing global economies down’.

“It is not right to say that the problems we are facing in the country are caused by President Chakwera. The President has been a bit unfortunate in the last three years. These [Covid, Cholera, Cyclone Freddy] are natural disasters beyond his control and they could have happened anyway even if DPP was in power,” he said.

DPP spokesperson Shadric Namalomba was in parliament when we sought his comments on the matter. Nthanda Times will run a contrary story once Namalomba gives his comments.