33 MPs attend DPP caucus at Ndata
Opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) 2014 standard bearer Peter Mutharika at the weekend held talks with his party’s legislators from the eastern and southern regions, Nyasa Times can reveal.
The meeting according to impeccable senior party source took place at late Bingu wa Mutharika’s fortified bastion Ndata estate also known as Malawi’s ‘White House.’
Among the topical issues discussed at the meeting included reaffirmation from the younger Mutharika who is also the party’s stand in leader’s commitment to develop and strengthen the party from the grass root.
Meanwhile, Nyasa Times sources further confided that the meeting was attended by a total of 33 legislators from the two regions with two apologies something he said is encouraging considering the mass exodus the party has experienced since the demise of its founding leader Bingu.
“Yes we had a meeting the whole of Saturday afternoon at Ndata; it was chaired by Prof. Peter Mutharika. So many issues were discussed but the main item on the agenda was that our leader was trying to reassure us about his commitment to continue supporting the party in these difficulty moments,” said the source who was a senior cabinet minister in the just abolished cabinet of late Mutharika.
Added he: “As you are aware the party is currently undergoing patchy moments where we’ve lost some members to the ruling PP so to have over 30 MPs attending from two regions to us is encouraging, even our second vice president Hon. Yunus Mussa was there.”
Mussa had announced on radio that he quit DPP and defected to PP after the death of Mutharika.
However, the source was non-committal on recent media reports where the party’s secretary General Wakuda Kamanga was quoted as saying Peter’s candidacy was not automatic as it is only the party’s elective conference that could decide the issue.
He said: “The issue of Peter’s candidacy was not discussed at the meeting may be at a later stage otherwise all our energy is now focusing on saving the party from going into oblivion.”
Peter took reigns of DPP following the death of his brother on April 5. His coronation was seen by many as undemocratic since Peter was not the second in command in terms of the party’s hierarchy that has Goodall Gondwe, Jean Kalilani and Mussa as top most senior figures after the position of party president.
Meanwhile, DPP officials were not readily available for comment on the Ndata meeting. However, Peter is on record as having vowed to never abandon the DPP ship following the death of his brother.
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