Mutharika bought Mayor’s house illegally: Matola rips DPP leader in Parliament
It does not rain but pour for Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential candidate Peter Mutharika with fresh revelations that that he and his late brother president Bingu wa Mutharika illegally bought five Lilongwe city council houses including that of the mayor, making the incoming Mayor after the tripartite elections next year homeless.
Although Mutharika defended himself in the National Assembly on Wednesday arguing all the properties he and his brother acquired had legal supporting documents, Minister of Energy Henry Matola came hard on him on Thursday in his contribution and revealed more dirt Mutharika and some of DPP officials were embroiled in and are failing to come out clean.
Matola trashed Mutharika’s argument that he had supporting documents, saying the issue was not having legal papers but how they were acquired.
Among others, Matola argued that the Mutharika’s were not sitting tenants to buy the houses nor was there any valuation of the houses or tender.
Matola argued that it was illogical that Mutharika could buy a city house around K3.7 million in Area 10, Lilongwe.
“That amount cannot even buy a plot in Area 10, let alone a house. How can the purchase of such a house be justified with a clear conscious?” wondered Matola.
Added Matola: “Mr. Speaker, Sir, The same was the case with the four houses that went to Bineth Trust. Doesn’t it speak volumes that the motives of some people for seeking the highest office in the land when, out of the nine (9) houses that were put for sale by the Lilongwe City Council, five (5) went to one (1) family and that family happened to be in the Presidency!
“It must also be sadly noted, Mr. Speaker, Sir, that one of those houses that the Mutharika [brothers] grabbed was the official residence of the Mayor of the City of Lilongwe. What that means, Mr. Speaker, Sir, is that come May 2014 after the Tripartite Elections, which includes the election of councilors, the Major of the capital will not have a home just because the Mutharika family felt they deserved that house, which is an air of entitlement that has no place in the character of anyone seeking the high office of the President of this great country.”
Matola argued that one of the conditions for the sale of the houses was that they had to be offered to sitting-in tenants and Mutharika and the Bineth Trust were not.
“The question is: How else, in the first place, could those houses have been offered to the Honourable Member and Bineth Trust other than by using their powerful positions to impose themselves on the properties? In addition, Mr. Speaker, Sir, the prices at which these houses were bought make my heart bleed. These houses are located in low density suburbs of the capital,” said Matola.
“Mr. Speaker, the Honourable Member for Thyolo East justified the questionable manner in which he and his brother’s Bineth Trust, where the Honourable Member was also a trustee at the time, bought some Lilongwe City Council Houses. The Honourable Member said he had documents for the houses that he and his brother shared at rock bottom prices. I want to believe that indeed, the Honourable Member and Bineth Trust have the documents that purport ownership of those houses.
“The issue here, Mr. Speaker, Sir, is not whether the Honourable Member and Bineth Trust have the documents. The issue is how they obtained those documents that gave them ownership of the properties in question,” argued Matola.
Matola observed that the country needs servant leaders with people’s affairs at heart and not those who exploit their all-powerful positions to exploit the powerless for their personal aggrandizement as it appears to be the policy of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).
Matola also dragged leader of the DPP in the House George Chaponda into the dirt.
He said: “Has anyone asked, for example, how the Honourable Member for Mulanje South West bought the government building in Limbe where there was supposed to be a medical school project? These are government assets, Mr. Speaker, and if they must be disposed of, due process must be followed. That process includes tendering. This was neither done in the case of the Lilongwe City Council Houses nor in the case of the Limbe property. In the final analysis, Mr. Speaker, Sir, the sales of Lilongwe City Council institutional houses and the Limbe property were illegal and, therefore, the sales must be withdrawn.”
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