MPs offer to send Chilima crash witness for psychiatric tests – Duma agrees to be taken to reenact story at crash site

• One MP openly asked whether Duma should be sent for a brain scan to examine his mental state
• MP questions how Chilima could have been standing at an open aircraft door mid-flight
• One MP suggested soldiers should be asked to fire shots to test whether Duma had been treated by a traditional healer to withstand bullets

Dramatic and, at times, bizarre exchanges erupted at Parliament’s Ad Hoc Committee investigating the death of former Vice-President Saulos Chilima on Tuesday, as MPs openly questioned the mental state of key witness Ephraim Duma and clashed over how to test the credibility of his extraordinary testimony.

Committee member Joshua Malango did not mince his words, directly asking whether Duma would be willing to undergo a brain scan so that MPs could examine his state of mind.

“Kodi ndinu okomzeka kuti mkayezedwe matenda a muubongo kuti akaunikire kaganizidwe kanu?” Malango asked – roughly, “Are you willing to be tested for a brain condition so we can examine your thinking?”

But fellow committee member and chairperson Walter Nyamilandu leapt to Duma’s defence, insisting the witness was of sound mind. “Ayi munthuyu ali sober ndipo chilichonse chomwe akulankhula sakusintha ndipo akuyima njii pa mfundo yomwe wanena… akudziwa chomwe akukamba,” Nyamilandu said, maintaining that Duma was sober, consistent, and fully aware of what he was saying.

Nyamilandu then asked Duma directly whether he would be willing to be taken to the Chikangawa crash site to physically demonstrate how events unfolded.

Duma agreed without hesitation. “Ndipo olo mutati tinyamuke lero ine ndine okomzeka kutero ndithu,” he said – insisting he was ready to go even that same day.

The committee then turned to the technical plausibility of Duma’s account. MP James Mpunga pressed him on how Chilima could have been standing at an open aircraft door while the plane was airborne, given that such doors do not open mid-flight.

Duma conceded he could not answer the question.

“Ine ndikulankhula zomwe ndinawona pa tsikuli. Sindinayambe ndayendesapo ndege ndiye sindingayikepo mulomo pa nkhaniyi,” he said – stating he was simply recounting what he saw and could not comment on aviation matters, having never flown a plane himself.

In one of the more startling interventions, MP Malango suggested that soldiers be asked to fire shots at Duma as a way of testing his earlier claims of surviving gunfire – apparently to establish whether he believed himself to have been treated by a traditional healer to resist bullets.

“Ndikadakonda kuti asilikali athu ayesele kuwaombera ndicholinga chakuti tionedi ngati adakomzedwa kuthupi ndi sing’anga,” Malango said.

Malango then asked Duma to respond to a specific paragraph from the Bureau’s report to establish whether his testimony matched its findings.

Duma, however, said he was unable to read the document without his glasses.

“Mutandipasa magalasi okulisa zimalembo nditha kuwerenga koma pano magalasi sindinanyamula, munthune ndili ndi vuto la maso,” he said, explaining he suffers from an eyesight problem and had not brought his reading glasses.

Elsewhere in the session, MP Njawala called for a separate individual – who he said had spoken on Zodiak Online claiming to have seen the aircraft circling before the crash – to be summoned to give evidence to the committee as well.

The extraordinary session adds a fresh layer of uncertainty to the already contentious inquiry into the June 2024 crash that killed Chilima and eight others, as MPs continue to grapple with conflicting and, in places, seemingly implausible witness accounts.