MP Chadanti-Malunga quits Malawi ruling DPP over irreconcilable differences as he pushes probe into ‘maizegate’
Member of Parliament for Nsanje South West, JoshepChidanti Malunga has quit the ruling Democrtaic Progressive Party (DPP) and will revert to his status of an independenty legislator , saying he could no longer live with being labelled a DPP member.
Malunga confirmed his resignation in interviews monitored on Dziko FM radio and Zodiak. He also granted an interview with Nyasa Times on Tuesday evening on the same matter.
“I have decided to be no longer member of the DPP. I am no longer a member of DPP,” Malunga said in an interview with Dziko Radio.
“I was elected as an independent MP and then joined DPP. Now am back to being independent,” he said.
During his interview on Zodiak, Malunga said he has been persuaded by his constituents to quit DPP, saying the governing party is sidelining his area in development terms.
And when asked by Nyasa Times if his decision is to do with widespread corruption bedevilling the DPP –led government, Malunga said: “Not really. Sometimes you have to be bold and make a decision regardless of the consequences.”
Chidanti-Malunga is chairperson of the Parliamentary Committee on Agriculture, Irrigation and Food Security, which earlier pushed the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) to launch an inquiry into the the ‘maizegate’ – procurement scandal by Admarc from Zambia.
The MP said he was unhappy with commission of inquiry set upby President Peter Mutharika to probe matters surrounding the ‘maizegate’.
He said the worry lies on the independence of the commission.
“I think there should have been some wide consultations with members of public and the civil society organisations to see how best to come up with the commission,” said Malunga.
He had also become disillusioned with the government’s attitude towards crackdown on corruption involving members of DPP or government.
Chidanti-Malunga stressed he was unable properly to represent the people who elected him under the banner of DPP which is now tainted with corruption, bad governance and economic failure.
DPP spokesperson Francis Kasaila who also comes from Malunga’s Nsanje district said the party was “disappointed” at the MPs resignation.
Kasaila said Malunga “a valuable member of Parliament” and that the party is saddened that he has chosen to dump it.
Malunga resignation from DPP will add pressure to President Peter Mutharika to suspend gricultural Development and Marketing Corporation (Admarc) chief executive officer Foster Mulumbe and Minister of Agriculture, Irrigation and Water Development George Chaponda to create space for an impartial and independent probe into the Zambian maize procurement saga.
The MP also agrees with calls for Mulumbe and Chaponda to be out of their jobs to avoid interfering with investigations.
Admarc handled the procurement of the purported 100 000 metric tonnes of maize from Zambia Cooperative Federation (ZCF) but allegedly engaged a privately-owned Zambian company Kaloswe Commuter and Courier Limited, which purportedly played the role of intermediary in the deal.
The Zambian company has since reportedly dragged Admarc to court for breach of contract, having already done so with the ZCF over similar charges.
Admarc reportedly paid about K26 billion, which government borrowed from Eastern and Southern African Trade and Development Bank, commonly known as PTA Bank, for the purchase of the maize which is about K9.5 billion more than the estimated K15 billion it could have paid, had it bought the maize directly from the Zambian Government.
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Stupid government full of shit. Stupid are all whose voted for this stupid fucked government of DPP. Malawians we don’t learn, his brother leave this country in a mess and again we voted his stupid corrupt brother.
people are realising how important it is to be true to oneself. Bravo Dr Malunga, I see that your schooling makes sense. ataye awa even if you lose in 2019 you have a PhD you will survive but let these scoundrels alone they are useless.
Malunga ndi mwana wakunjira – anali STEP-SON wa DPP. So, was not a biological son in the DPP family – no wonder step-sons are always unrully
Rewind:
He is chairman of Parliamentary Committee on Agriculture and he constituted part of a probe for ADMARC and Chaponda on the maize saga. He is in fact the lead who started the whole need to probe.
Already you can see that his life is in difficulty if he remains in DPP. It will even be more suicidal to his political career if Mulumbe and Chaponda have been cleared of wrong doing. Politics!
He thought just because he holds a PhD he would automatically be made minister. Wagwa nayo kuliso ena kumeneko
My fellow Malawians, pati bii pali minga. Amene wachiwona ndiye wathawa. Soon you will see others quiting out, those who don’t want kusolora and opressing their people who voted for them. But the bounsers, those who are behind kusolora and they don’t even care or think of their voters can not dare to quite. They know that they shall never be voted again. We can see, up to now the current administration is silent for the openning of Poly and we don’t know when it will be opened, and that is one way of opressing students future. But the lectures are still getting their monthly salary without working while the current administration is just watching and celebrating, thats intresting . The Almighty God is watching and soon shall intervin. Just watchout and see.
WISE PPLE AWZ DELINK THEMSELVES FROM SINKING VESSELS! A LOT OF GATES! THE COUNTRY Z ON TRIAL KKK
towards the end of last year some disgruntled members of opposition parties moved to join DPP,everybody clappped hands and comments were like oppositon parties are on the blink of collapsin g now when its time for ruling party members to go and join oppositon party its a crime. search me
You are a very wise MP, more wise than your President who remains quite on obvious issues. Wish you all the best Mr Legislature. More importantly please pass my regards to your constituents
SOMETIMES I HAVE PROBLEMS TO UNDERSTAND PRESIDENT PETER
MUTHARIKA’S WISDOM AND THINKING CAPABAILITY.
WHEN A COMMISSION OF ENQUIRY IS SET TO PROBE SOME OFFICERS,
FOR WHATEVER ALLEGATIONS THEY ARE ANSWERING TO,
THE COMMON SENSE DEMANDS THAT THE CONCERNED OFFICERS
SHOULD BE SUSPENDED TO PAVE WAY FOR A THOROUGH
INVESTIGATION WITH INTERFERANCE.
WHAT IS STOPPING PETER FROM SUSPENDING MULUMBE AND
CHAPONDA?
ON MULUMBE, MAY BE THE PRESIDENT MAY SAY IT IS THE
BOARD THAT OUGHT TO DO THAT, BUT WHAT ABOUT CHAPONDA????
THE PRESIDENT CANT CONTINUE LEAVING IN DENIAL…THERE
IS SOMETHING TERRIBLY SERIOUS WITH THIS PRESIDENT!!!!!!!
VUTO LOMANGOLEMBANA NTCHITO A DERA LIMODZI NDILIMENELO.
ZIKACHITIKA, YOU FAIL TO ACT. KAYA ZANU IZO!!!
Santana,
Have you found out WHY the DPP did well in the lower shire especially in Nsanje? And do you remember APM`s main theme of his campaign in the lower shire? I notice that people still think Malawi will be demarcated according to how people have always voted in the past. You are so wrong!
The main Message for APM and DPP in 2014 was that ` we will finish what Bingu had started, and most of the love APM got was for his brother, accept it or not. APM personally had failed in every ministry he had handled, Education with the chanco stalemate , foreign affairs and the British high commissioner deportation, Ministry of Justice and the bad laws. The lower shire was told that the moment APM was sworn in, he will proceed to the port and open the Nsanje Waterway; that the buzz that was there about Nsanje during the time of Bingu where people were rushing to buy land and the people of nsanje made money selling land; and the expectations of Nsanje becoming a city( and images portraying what the city would look like were all over the place) prompted people to vote in APM. What has happened thus far I ask you?
As for the argument that JZU was better at wooing people than chakwera and the notion that since JZU couldn`t win in the lower shire chakwera has no chance is a self defeating argument. Self defeating because Santana goes on to say that only Gwanda could manage to control the lower shire voting, and he forgets about the relationship between Gwanda and Tembo. If the people of the lower shire loved Gwanda that much, how would they vote for John Tembo, the very man that Gwanda blamed for his 13 years of incarceration? So why would chakwera fail just because Tembo did. And the fact that the people of the lower shire have been duped by the DPP with these promises of the Nsanje port and the city, and that Gwanda is no longer there and the lower shire is up for the taking, does it not follow that nothing is for certain there anymore? Noone can claim the area as their definite backyard. I think the lower shire is anybody`s come 2019!
He won on an independent ticket. Find out which presidential candidate won more votes in his area. People might have voted for him looking at the party affliation he had at that time. And this time with his quitting of the DPP I don’t think he has a chance of winning this seat in 2019. The man has got financial problems which he thought the DPP would solve for him. You see some politicians don’t look carefully before they jump. Remember during Bingu’s death many MPs dumped the DPP thinking the party is finished. I don’t remember if any of these MPs retained his seat in 2014 yet the DPP fought while outside the govt. Go to Nsanje and find out which party is making inroads there. Even if MIA joins MCP I swear he can not produce miracles for the party in the Lower Shire. It was only Gwanda who was able to convince people from that side of Malawi. But there was a time when DPP conguered him right there. So I don’t think Malunga can afford to block DPP’s maneuvering in the Lower Shire. The problem with people who are commenting on these issues is that they don’t take effort to go on the ground and assess things. Do you really think Chakwera can have an upper hand in the Lower Shire after a fail by Master JZU? Malunga is just shooting himself on the foot. This is self destruction politically. From the look of things if we are true to ourselves we can clearly see that nothing can prevent the DPP from retaing power in 2019, come what may.
I don’t see anything principled or clever with what Malunga has done here. This guy is an opportunist who thought that he will get something from these corrupt DPP people and is probably frustrated. People like Hon Chidanti Malunga are part of what is wrong with our country, and the people clapping hands for him are just blinded by their hate of these DPP thieves. He should not have gone to DPP in the first place when the people of his constituency had chosen him as an independent and decided against any party`s candidate.
Now there is the issue of crossing the floor that no one is talking about here. Independents think that they have the right to switch between parties as they wish even after they had decided to join a party which is represented in parliament. When he decided to switch from his independent status to join DPP, which in my view was wrong in the first place, he abandoned his independent status. He does not have the right to switch again to independent just because he feels like it. People of his constituency are being taken for granted here and their wishes are being disregarded. That is why if a person, be it an independent or elected on a party ticket wants to switch sides, he needs to get a fresh mandate by giving the people in his constituency the opportunity to vote again in a by election,
In my view, there is nothing courageous or heroic that this chidanti Malunga guy has done here. He is another useless person, a waste of time and space.
mwana mngwathu uyu!!!
Mufunilanji umboni wina, Chaponda ndi mbava yoopsya.
He was not and is not a DPP member,won as an independent candidate and joined DPP personal gain only that things did not go the way he expected,he does nothing in his area and is fond of torturing people by saying”ndinawina chifukwa cha ndalama zanga ndipo ndi nthawi yoti ndibweze zanga”.What he has done will have no impact to the party as well as to the people of Nsanje south west,he will regret in the near future,nobody from his area told him to do what he has done as per his claim.
WEL COME MAN TO OPPOSITION SIDE
A hand for this Mp pliz….peter should think twice ….pakhomo ana akamakuwukila….two things..it might be the father is bad or anawo are bad…i choose the first.
These r type of leaders who represent local pipo,may God of Abraham bless u
Ndiwozindikira.
Becareful Malunga lest you end your political career like fellow empty tin Allan Ntata. When the ruling party begins to put you in your right place like you have decided to do to them, the cheer leaders that are congratulating you here will not help you.
Remember the so many whose departure was celebrated like Wakuda Kamanga etc. The only notable peak of their career was the departure.
Bravo malinga go go go.
You were there just to get recognition. Such a big man like you quoting because of maize scandal.
Don’t come back any morem
Dpp will not loose anything because you didn’t come on their ticket
You thought you would be considered for powerful position
kwanunkha mphira
Very disappointing indeed. Koma poti ndi democracy let him live with his decision he came he has left. Nthawi ya malemu Bingu zitavuta people left…… lero they are crying from the outside.
Mr. Chidadanti, what cant you just say that DDP did not give you the Ministerial position and you are leaving the party for MCP for possible future Minister. On the other hand, Chidanti is broke and has become very unpopular in his contituency. He has been reaching out to Sidik Mia for his advise.
Its good to see people with such guts, it only reminds you that there is light at the end of the……………….lets hope you are doing this in good faith
If Malawi is to move on, this is the only way to go. God is hearing cries of many Malawians now,just wait for a minute before you hear the realm issue. It was Chakwera, Kamulepo, Mwenefumbo, their own Vice President, now their own MP Malunga and soon a surprise is coming. Malawi will soon be saved. To God be glory
kodi Mavuto Bamusi ali kuti? nkhani izi akadanenapo kuti chiyani? zikuvutatu zinthu apa.
Mabvuto umaphunzitsa bwino za Budget tracking. koma apa iweyo ungapange apply bwanji? boma lavutatu apa.`
Wow! some of the rotten beans are able to see the rot from a distance. And yet APM can’t even smell the stinker from his own boardroom. What a useless president we have. Lord have mercy.
great minds