I’m absolutely falling apart – Gwanda Chakuamba

Malawi veteran politician in retirement from front line politics, Gwanda Chakuamba, has said he is living a destitute life due to financial problems, according to press reports.

Chakuamba, 81 told The Nation newspaper of Thursday that he is penniless and struggling to live a normal life.

The paper reports that Chakuamba is having constant threats of eviction from Malawi Housing Corporation house in Chimwankhunda where he resides.

“I also have problems with water and electricity bills,” the paper quoted the veteran politician as saying.

Chakuamba owned several properties, including Mount Pleasant No 1 house, Milare house, one house each in Chigumula and Nyambadwe in Blantyre, an inn in Mangochi and a number of farms.

He told the paper that while his United States of America-based children occasionally assist him, the assistance is not enough.

Former minister Moses Dossi, a close ally to Chakuamba, commented: “In Malawi we honour people when they die and not necessarily when they are alive.”

Meanwhile, a reports indicate Chakuamba be conferred with an honorary Doctor of Philosophy degree by Cyprus International Institute of Texas in United States of America this Saturday.

Chakuamba, who retired from active politics, would be awarded the doctorate in line with his invaluable contribution to the country having served in almost all ruling parties, as former minister and once a leader of opposition.

Cyprus International Institute second Vice Chancellor Professor Gusto Tuweh Gadama said Chakuamba will be honoured during a graduation ceremony to be held at Bingu International Conference Centre in Lilongwe.

In his prime as a politician, Chakuamba held various Cabinet portifolios in the one-party State of founding president Hastings Kamuzu Banda from the late 1960s to 1980 when he was arrested and charged with treason. He was released in 1993 after the dawn of plural politics through a national referendum.

After his release, Chakuamba rejoined Malawi Congress Party (MCP) and served in a three-member presidential council that managed State affairs after Kamuzu was taken ill.

After the 1994 general elections won by the first post-independence multiparty president Bakili Muluzi and his United Democratic Front (UDF), Chakuamba became leader of opposition in Parliament. He later served as Cabinet minister in Bingu wa Mutharika’s administration in 2004.

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