Malawi MP Ntelemuka says moves with a gun ‘to be respected’
Member of Parliament for Blantyre City South West, Jeoffrey Ntelemuka astonished members of the District Advisory Committee for Blantyre when he revealed that he has a gun and that he moves around with it in his car.
“I can’t allow to be threatened. I move around with a gun in my car because people are so disrespectful,” said Ntelemuka on Wednesday.
Ntelemuka repeated his earlier statement when members murmured “muti shuta” meaning you will shoot us.
“That’s me. I can’t allow to be threatened. I need to be respected,” Ntelemuka said.
He said that was why he had been deliberately missing some of the launch ceremony of Local Development Fund (LDF) projects.
“For instance, the traditional leader of Ntonda publicly disrespected me and we don’t talk to each other,” said Ntelemuka.
Ntelemuka blamed officers from the district council for telling village committees that MPs are not important.
The MP’s sentiments came in response to an earlier plea by the District Commissioner that MPs should just play an advisory role to the LDF committees and not force them to follow their decisions.
The District Commissioner for Blantyre, Charles Makanga complained that MPs were not following LDF guidelines which require members of the committee to run projects and not MPs.
However, some MPs from Blantyre rural were reported to be going to shops on their own for quotations and forcing the committees to buy from specified shops.
Member of Parliament for Blantyre North insisted that there was nothing wrong with that.
“I don’t see anything wrong with that. I do that to help them because they cannot locate cheaper shops on their own,” Phiso said.
Traditional Authority Somba said the problem was that people were given dissenting views which needed to be cleared out.
“MPs and community members are one. They all need to understand issues at the same level,” Somba said.
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