Kabwila spits more fire on JB: ‘MCP won’t apologise’
The opposition Malawi Congress Party (MCP) says it will not apologise for remarks by its leader Lazarus Chakwera accusing President Joyce Banda of being “childish” on dealing with issues of national interest.
Chakwera said this on his recent return from the United States.
However. President Banda on Sunday challenged Chakwera, to stop calling her “childish” and begin to attend to the core needs of Malawians who were suffering.
Speaking during the development rally she held at Senior Chief Mazengera Headquarters in the capital Lilongwe where she also distributed 15 cows to 15 beneficiaries and distributed 1,000 bags of maize to needy families, President Banda said: “Chakwera said he would be practicing clean politics and that he would not castigate fellow politicians yet he called me childish/
“Can a childish leader build houses for others across the country? Can a childish leader distribute maize? Can a childish leader fight corruption? Can a childish leader do all the things I am doing?
“I want to challenge Chakwera to join me in feeding the hungry Malawians, empowering them with livestock, and building decent houses for them instead of calling me ‘childish.”
But MCP publicist Jessie Kabwila told a local radio on Monday that the party sees no need to apologise for the remarks.
“We are not going to apologise” Kabwila says, “If we are to apologise, it is the whole nation to apologise. And the question is, to whom are we apologising to? And if 95 percent of Malawians say JB (Joyce Banda) government is childish who PP to ask us to apologise is?”
Kabwila said PP ruling officials should understand that they are “our servants”.
“We employed them to be in-charge not the other way round. Not only that we are not apologising but we are now adding that the PP are uncultured government.”
Referring to recent incident in which bodies were buried in a mass grave in the capital Lilongwe following the non-functioning of the cold rooms at Kamuzu Central Hospital Kabwila said: “What have they done? They are now getting us buried in mass grave. I want to repeat that instead of apologising we are calling upon PP government to resign”
Earlier in his speech at the rally, Banda’s presidential running-mate, Sosten Gwengwe, branded the MCP leader “a wanderer” saying Chakwera had been trained by the Nkhoma CCAP Synod to become a Reverend but that the MCP candidate later dumped the church.
“It was Nkhoma CCAP Synod that sent Chakwera to theological college for him to get to where he is today,” said Gwengwe. “But upon returning from the college, Chakwera changed tune by questioning children baptism in the church and he went to join Assemblies of God.
“Now he has dumped the Assemblies of God and he is now turning to politics. He is a wanderer and a wanderer cannot be trusted.”
The PP running-mate added that regarding the May 20 polls, President Banda with her vast political experience, coupled with her 2-year presidential experience, had all the advantages over Chakwera whom Gwengwe described as “a novice who lacked both experiences.”
Apparently, Gwengwe has been political nomad himself who has switched three parties within a period of less than 10 years. He was MCP, joined DPP and now PP.
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