TVM ordered to downplay news on Joyce Banda
The ‘Big Kahuna’, President Bingu wa Mutharika, has ordered state television not to give prominence to news coverage of the Vice President, Right Hon Mrs. Joyce Banda, Nyasa Times has learnt.
TVM sources said coverage on the Vice President who has been having numerous official engagements has been scaled down due to “orders from the Big Kahuna”.
“There have been orders that we should not give prominence to the Vice President and that we should actually give her a blackout,” said a senior TVM member of staff claiming to be on holiday.
Banda is reported to have broken ranks with President Mutharika who is grooming his brother to succeed him as President in 2014 elections when his term expires.
The Vice President is accused of forming parallel party structures to enhance her ambitions to contest for the top job. However, she is on record to have rebutted reports that a task force to agitate for her candidacy has been formed.
However, JB, as the Vice President is affectionately called, is likely to slug it out with the President’s brother, Prof Peter Mutharika who is the Justice and Constitutional Affairs Minister for the ruling DPP party’s nomination for presidential candidate in those elections.
The Vice President is seen as a front-runner for the position as many believe she can offer stability and continuity. Banda, the wife of former Chief Justice, Richard Banda who is serving as chief judge in Swaziland, comes from Malemia village in Zomba district.
She was recently installed as the country’s goodwill ambassador for safe motherhood, and formerly founded the National Association of Business Women (NABW) in Malawi. For this role, she (jointly with President Joaquim Chissano of Mozambique) was awarded the 1997 Africa Prize for Leadership for the Sustainable End of Hunger by the Hunger Project, a New York-based non-governmental organization.
In addition, she owns the Joyce Banda Foundation, a primary and secondary school foundation situated in Chimwankhunda, Blantyre.
JB also enjoys the support of most young women between the ages of 17 and 40 who look at her as their role model. She also enjoys the support of political leaders from all regions including Goodall Gondwe, the Leader of Government in Parliament.
Prof. Peter Mutharika, the president’s brother, on the other hand, is a distinguished scholar having taught International and Economic Law at various reputable universities around the world.
Meanwhile, the succession plan in the ruling DPP will remain a source of instability in the party as jostling to be on the side of the right candidate intensifies. This is likely to result in several disrupted political careers as some highly qualified people who may still be waiting on the wings to succeed the incumbent president Mutharika get disgruntled or give up.
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