Analyst says Malawi 2nd citizen can successfully sue govt for slashing constitutional benefits

A critical thinker and aggressive political and social commentator Humphreys Mvula has said vice president Saulos Chilima can successfully take the government to court for slashing the Constitutional benefits which include the down sizing of the security detail.

Mvula wondered how the government spokesperson Nicholas Dausi could say that what is left to him is what is provided in the law just days after Chilima successfully launched his United Transformation Party (UTM).

“The vice president can successfully challenge this in court. These are not benefits provided by the Democratic Progressive Party but by the government of Malawi through our taxes,” said Mvula.

He warned that Chilima and his UTM might have an easy ride over their political opponents because Malawians would give them a sympathy vote in the 2019 elections, the same sympathy vote that propelled Mutharika to power in 2014.

Mvula said the Mutharika and the DPP are just confused because of the successful launch of UTM on Saturday in Lilongwe attended by thousands upon thousands of people.

In an apparent reference to the ill-treatment faced by Cassim Chilumpha and Joyce Banda as State VPs, Mvula  said what other human rights defenders have pointed out that the DPP administration is fond of mistreating Vice-Presidents.

Dausi, however, said the government would now want to strictly follow the law, saying the state resources would be withdrawn if the vice president goes for jobs outside the government, an opinion Mvula laughed off, saying the president and cabinet ministers are the first to abuse state resources and use them for personal or private use.

Under the Presidents (Salaries and Benefits) Act, the Vice-President, among other benefits, is entitled to one personal bodyguard, one head of security guard, six security guards, two chauffeurs, two cooks and personal assistants.

Earlier yesterday, Chief Secretary in the OPC Lloyd Muhara had written all principal secretaries and heads of departments in what was classified as Distribution List ‘A’ under the subject Privileges and Benefits for the Right Honourable Vice-President.

In the communication, Muhara said he was reminding the recipients that “the Right Honourable Vice-President should only be accorded such privileges and benefits as prescribed by law whenever the Vice-President is performing government business”.

Since Chilima announced on June 6 this year that he was leaving DPP, he has been stripped of the portifolio of Minister responsible for Disaster Management Affairs and in-charge of National Public Events.

The President on July 8 also ordered that Chilima should no longer be co-chair of the Malabo Montpeller Forum, an international think tank to which he was appointed in September 2017.