DPP colours saving ‘destitute’ Malawians from victimisation
Tired of facing a succession of arrests and vicious beatings at the hands of Malawi’s self acclaimed reformed police, many Malawians particularly those involved in illegal activities have resorted to wearing the governing Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) cloth as a way of thwarting victimisation, Nyasa Times has established.
This according to our investigations is common among minibus drivers and touts, small scale businesswomen who are not allowed to ply their small businesses within the city, charcoal vendors, second-hand clothes sellers locally known as Kaunjika and all those whose businesses are described as illegal.
From December 2008 through to the run up to the just ended May 19 polls vendors, businesswomen and touts have resorted to putting on DPP colours in order to seek for asylum from police and the city fathers.
Some of the victims Nyasa Times talked to disclosed that wearing a DPP T-shirt or any cloth bearing the ruling party’s insignia, they are assured of not being chased away or arrested by the police who have been hired by City Assemblies to carry out the operation.
Catherine Samila, a 29 year old Mbayani resident who sale bananas in the city of Blantyre and wore a DPP T-shirt at the time of the interview, told this reporter that for two weeks now she has been doing her business freely without any disturbance from the city officials or police.
“Look I have inside my MCP Chitenje and on top I’m wearing DPP cloth……check my friend there she has a UDF cloth inside and check the other woman carrying tomato……they are doing the same. If I do not put on a DPP cloth then that day there is going to be no business for me because we’ll spend the whole day in hide and seek,” confirmed Samila.
Corroborating the story the friend of Samila only answering as Anagama said “as you can see today I’m wearing a DPP T-shirt and there is no way I can be chased out of the streets, and yesterday I met the Blantyre City Assembly vehicle just at the corner and when they saw me carrying my bananas and oranges they just passed by and I heard one of them telling his friends that I should be left alone because I’m a member of DPP….that’s how we’re surviving nowadays,” concluded Anagama.
Another woman who described herself as Mai Chombo concurred with Samila’s sentiment. She vowed never to stop wearing the DPP cloth because “it’s is where she has found solace.”
“I sale vegetables and fruits in the city of Blantyre and for an uncounted times I have been a victim of operation dongosolo, I remember in December last year before Christmas the city officials accompanied by the police seized everything I was selling and I was completely paralysed I had to borrow K500 in order to start all over again,” confided Mai Chombo.
While the DPP cloth seems to be the survival kit for the illegal traders, in Blantyre several other business operators have seized the cloth as a scare crow to the law enforcers.
“If you are approaching Mwanza boarder or any road block just remember the DPP T-shirt or the hand kerchief all will be well, and police or MRA will just tell you carry on,” declared Jacob Mbewe a regular Blantyre Johannesburg vendor.
According to our findings it has been established that most car dealers evade custom duty and for them not to be questioned by the traffic police they place the DPP cloth right at the rear view mirror.
“I bought my car in Dare Salaam and it’s been six months and I’ve not yet registered it because i don’t have money. But my friend a son of senior DPP official who stays in Bangwe told me that if i put DPP stickers the police have no reason to impound it, tikulamula amwene (My friend we’re ruling the country and we’re untouchables).
When a senior DPP official was asked about all these malpractices he feigned ignorance and further indicated that the top brass may not be aware of such rackets.
“The president is very honest and a strict disciplinarian who cannot accept such nonsense,” concluded the senior DPP executive.
Tagged with: Bingu, DPP, Police
Zina ukamva, Muluzi unga Wenzulo…
Zinazi ndi MBAVA. DPP is as innocent as….
So please stop talking useless things on this website..
If this is indeed true then something has to be done about this.
But as an academic i cant help but to think that after the recent polls, with the DPP scooping 66% for the presidential elections and 114 seats of parliament, then the collected interviews from this report certainly represent a minority.
From the election results, it would seem that the majority of vendors who don DPP party colours are truelly DPP supporters
GUESS WHAT!!!! BLAME IT ON THE POLICE! I MEAN THEY BEAT PPLE TOO MUCH! LOOK AT THE MZUNI FRACAS!
I HAVE A DPP SHIRT THAT I PUT ON EVERY WEEKEND BUT I CURSE BINGU DEEP DOWN MY SOUL!!!
Nyasa Times, thats very true. Zafika posauzana. If you are driving a car without musonkho, just put a DPP Cloth, you will survive. A traffic sangakuimise. Thats the trick. Koma a Nyasa Times nanunso mwati ululila chinsinsi……….WE ARE IN A DICTATORSHIP. And for you to survive, you need all the tricks in the book. Chonde a Nyasa Times, musa ulule zisinsi zina zimene tima pangila survive in a dictatorship
Kumachangamuka pa malo!Who doesnt want to be associated with good things? Should what you have written is true, it then follows that even the law en-forcers are very satisfied with the peace and harmony the DPP yourh/followers potray. Bravo Ana a mose! Che Chitekwe reminds all Nyasa Times readers that MOSES was not alone. He had his brother AARON by his side. Peter Mutharika Woyee…
SYNTAX ERROR = “Should what you have written is true” (Che Chikwete)
IT SHOULD READ = “Should what you have written be true”
HA!HA!HA! SHAME! go back 2 xul Che Chikwete!!
Che Chitekwe reminds thick-headed YOUNG FUTURE who Masquerade as a grammar tycoon, that English language shall never be a bench-mark or measure of intelligence. Che Chitekwe has been to the Elton of Africa – The Kamuzu Academy- What is grammar? Che Chitekwe has Read Elizabethan and Shake-Spearan English as a petty mode of entertaiment and NOT communication. Che Chitekwe is now a Havard Nuclear Physicist and communicates well in symbols, mathematically. With all humility and proud satisfaction, Che Chitekwe has taken note of typographical ERROR so observed. But warns cow-dunged crooks like YOUNG FUTURE to focus on issues discussed on the magnificient Nyasa Times and not to poke nasty noses on people’s contributions. If Chitekwe had mispelt Lomwe, Tumbuka or Chewa, it would have been SHAME! But to overlap English Semantics and Syntax? A language of colonial masters who could not even take your great grand parents as slaves because they were so thin to cultivate in sugar plantations! Tiyeni Tiyende Pamodzi ndi mtima Umodzi!
YOUNG FUTURE
Chizungu si chanthu.I think you should just get the message
Nanga titani poti iwo ngokhonza
This is exactly that was happenning when Bakili was the President. A yellow hankie was part of the game when driving on the roads of Malawi and it was through this practice that some crimes went unnoticed.
Zoonadi sukunama Cliton, A UDF akapanga zonzo ndiyeno iwo akanena kut kutunda kwake ndi konko ndiye lero DPP ngat ikupanga zimenezo anaonera UDF, asa!! tiyeni tizingoona osat kumatha mawu
Koditu fisi ndi fisi adatero a Kamulepo.
Ayi athu ndi masowa.Tiyeni nazoni mpaka 2014 wooo.