Kamuzu Chibambo quits Tonse Alliance
The suspension of Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) Director General, Martha Chizuma — coming not long after her infamous arrest on December 6, 2022 — is the “clearest sign yet that corruption, Malawi’s No. 1 enemy, is triumphing”.
Thus the People’s Transformation Party president, Kamuzu Chibambo contends that corruption is amongst failures, wrongs and bad decisions amid several others by the Government — which are not only contrary to what the Tonse Alliance campaigned for in the 2020 Presidential Election “but are also increasingly frustrating all genuine efforts to fight this vice and the Rule of Law”.
The party has since announced its withdrawal from the Tonse Alliance with immediate effect from today, February 9.
In the statement, Chibambo said: “President Lazarus Chakwera last year told the citizenry that Malawi’s No. 1 enemy is corruption and that it is not welcome here. This message excited the nation.”
He said thus attests that corruption is triumphing following recent events sorrounding Chizuma — coupled with “the looming hunger in the nation due to rampant governance failures, dubious procurement and the haphazard supply of fertilizer under AIP as another troubling reality that continues to bedevil our nation”.
“The bizarre closure of ADMARC, which as we all know has for decades been the nation’s life line for sale of grain and fertilizers, had created lots of miseries for our fellow Malawians — especially in rural areas.
“Some of our courts too, including the highest Court in the land, have come under public scrutiny as to whether they sincerely are fighting corruption or they are instead aiding and abetting it.
“In light of this, PETRA’s leadership is left with no option but to withdraw with immediate effect its membership from the Tonse Alliance as it hereby does,” Chibambo said, while imploring “patriotic sons and daughters of Malawi [that] the time to arise and unite to fight this vice is now.
“The future of our children and of generations to come is at stake. Let us join hands.
“As we close this chapter, it would be remiss of us not to express our gratitude for the opportunity availed to PETRA to provide and serve as the Alliance spokesperson which further accorded the Party the rare chance to moderate Alliance Partners’ meetings. The gesture shall always be cherished.
The Tonse Alliance formed towards the 2020 fresh presidential election, had Malawi Congress Party; Vice-President Saulos Chilima’s UTM Party; former Head of State Joyce Banda’s People’s Party (PP); former Vice-President Khumbo Kachali’s Freedom Party, AFORD, People’s Progressive Movement, Umodzi Party and Mafunde.
In 2021, Kachali, who was Vice-President to Joyce Banda’s two-year administration after the death of President Bingu wa Mutharika in 2012, accused President Chakwera’s Tonse Alliance administration of failing to fulfill campaign promises a year after being ushered into government.
He was quoted by the media of having made the observation during a political rally held in Northern Region, at which he said Malawians are tired of Chakwera’s fake Canaan promises.
“Tonse alliance promised that price of fertilizer will be at K5,000 per 50kg bag, How much is the price now?” Kachali is quoted as asking the gathering who replied in a chorus ‘MK40,000 per bag’.
He also criticised continued fuel prize hikes then, arguing that it translated to increase of prices of essential commodities.
