DPP cancels rally to pave way for UTM launch in Mzuzu: Callista set for more ‘mtchona’ slurs

The governing Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has cancelled its rally at Katoto Ground which coincided with the United Transformation Movement (UTM) rally in Mzuzu to be addressed by Vice-President Saulos Chilima this Saturday.

The DPP cancelled the rally amid commentators saying it could be a recipe for violence as the UTM has their scheduled launch of the North at a stone throw distance of Mzuzu upper stadium.

UTM spokesperson Joseph Chidanti Malunga said they were the first to book a rally in Mzuzu on the day.

He said their supporters will not waste time to engage in violent scenes since they are eager to listen to the message from their leader and the country’s Vice-President Chilima.

But DPP regional governor for the North Kenneth Sanga said they have decided to cancel the rally so that they could address   22 meetings in Mzimba this Sunday.

“The DPP is holding a series of meetings on Sunday and we are going flat out,” Sanga said.

The UTM rally will be held when Mzuzu City legislator Leonard Njikho has ditched DPP and could be welcomed into the newly formed political movement.

Meanwhile, it is expected to be seen whether former first lady and the incumbent President Peter Mutharika’s in-law Callista Mutharika would maintain the jibe of calling him ‘mtchona’, a description of someone who has been away from his or her country for long after former president Bakili Muluzi censured her.

In an address to the United Democratic Front (UDF) convention at Comesa Hall in Blantyre on Wednesday, Muluzi—the country’s second Head of State who formed the first multiparty administration in 1994—  called for politicians to respect President Mutharika and desist from abusing the spirit of multiparty democracy as that is destroying the country.

Said Muluzi: “Please do not destroy this country because of politics. This is the only country we have. Should we destroy it because of politics? Multiparty should not destroy this country. Whether mlamu [in-law] or not, you cannot stand on the podium and call your President mtchona.”

But analyst Henry Chingaipe said there is nothing wrong with calling Mutharika that way because it is a truth that exists.

According to Chingaipe, the fact that Mutharika is a ‘mtchona’ and what the former first lady and the incumbent President’s in-law Callista Mutharika and others said about him is just a statement of fact since Mutharika stayed abroad for decades where he was employed as an academic.

Callista is expected to address the Mzuzu rally and would throw in slurs to spice her speech.

Politicians from DPP have on different occasions used foul and degrading language against their rival as recently the party’s Southern Region governor Charles Mchacha publicly used offensive remarks to Mulanje West legislator Patricia Kaliati through her husband and Mulanje Pasani legislator Angie Kaliati at a rally addressed by Mutharika. The President did not condemn the unsavoury remarks.