Muluzi, Thodi clash at funeral
Muluzi: Remained calm
Funeral ceremony nearly came to a halt in Thyolo last Friday when immigration boss Elvis Thodi tried unsuccessfully to stop the former president Dr. Bakili Muluzi from attending, Nyasa Times can reveal.
The deceased a Mr. Malisita’s son Dr. Ken Malisita is married to Muluzi’s first born daughter Esmey and apparently Thodi happens to be a nephew to the deceased.
Meanwhile, tempers rose to the roof the moment a convoy of four vehicles carrying Dr. Muluzi and his wife Shanil arrived at Kasaleka Village, Traditional Authority Chimaliro in Thyolo district.
Thodi was seen rising from his chair shouting on top of his voice in discomfort with the former president’s presence.
Muluzi was solemn and grief stricken so was the entire entourage that included former Finance Minister Friday Jumbe, his son Atupele and brother Friday Muluzi among several other politicians and family members.
Thodi claimed that Muluzi at the time he was the country’s head of state fired him as Commissioner of police, and according to Thodi there was no apparent reason for the UDF national chair to attend the funeral.
“I’m not at all comfortable with your coming, you fired me as Commissioner of police and I don’t know what you are doing here,” said Thodi, pointing directly at Muluzi who was in his usual calm and composed mood.
This however, did not go down well with Muluzi’s son-in-law (Dr. Malisita) who openly told Thodi that he is the one who is not supposed to be present because he abandoned the deceased during his time of illness.
Meanwhile, unmoved Muluzi accompanied by a phalanx of bodyguards went ahead to attend the entire funeral proceedings and left soon after the remains of Malisita senior were being taken to his final resting place.
In his condolence speech, village head Kasaleka commended Muluzi for showing maturity by not reacting to Thodi’s sadistic remarks.
“Your Excellency the UDF national chairman, let me apologize to you in the first instance what has happened, most of the times it is unfortunate that when sad moments like these come we normally lose senses and I want to commend you for not reacting otherwise there would have been chaos here,” said Kasaleka.
On his part, UDF senior member Jumbe who spoke on behalf Muluzi said the entire Muluzi family is shocked with the death of Mr. Malisita who he said was a father to the two families and would be missed for his advisory role to the families and Muluzi personally.
Meanwhile, Nyasa Times investigations have revealed that Muluzi never fired Thodi from Police service but was rather sacked for stealing donor funds from the Britain’s Department for International Development (DFID) meant for Malawi Police reform.
According to a source at the Southern Region police Thodi was saved from prosecution because of the family connections with the then Malawi ruler.
“In fact he should have Muluzi to thank for otherwise we had a shadow of evidence to prove beyond reasonable in the court of law on how he embezzled millions of money meant for Police reform. We have the files here at the southern region police headquarters and if given a go ahead we could resuscitate the case,” said the senior police officer who cooperated well during our investigations at the weekend.
Thodi is tipped to return to Police for the position of Inspector General of police, a post that fell vacant following Mutharika’s sacking of Oliver Kumbambe who has been posted to Germany as deputy ambassador.
Tagged with: Friday Jumbe, Immigration Chief, Malwi ex-president, Muluzi, Thodi, Thyolo
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