Mutharika against ‘Lomwe Belt’ tag: Malawi leader hits at critics on nepotism
President Peter Mutharika on Sunday asked Malawians to stop calling the districts or areas dominated by the Lomwe tribe as ‘Lomwe Belt’, saying such tags are discriminatory and lashed out at critics who accuse him of displaying nepotistic tendencies for favouring his tribesmen.
Mutharika made the remarks during Mulhako wa Alhomwe 2017 annual celebrations which was held at Chonde in Mulanje.
He wondered why the country only have the ‘Lomwe Belt’ despite having different tribes.
“I don’t know who started this, but I am asking you to stop it. We have different tribes in the country like Tumbuka, Mang’anja, Chewa, Yao and Sena. But their areas are not known like that of the Lomwe tribe like ‘Tumbuka Belt’ or Yao Belt…,” said the visibly angry Mutharika.
He also lashed at critics who accuse him and his government of practicing nepotism, saying his appointments in public service arew based on merit.
Mutharika has been widely accused that his government places members of his tribal grouping Mulhako wa Alhomwe in most influential positions in the public service.
But Mutharika rebutted this accusations.
“I have made four appointments recently, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Roads Authority is from Nkhotakota. I have appointed the CEO of Tobacco Control Commission who is from Dedza,” Mutharika said.
He went on: “The Vice Chancellor of Luanar (Lilongwe University if Natural Resources) is from Kasunguy and the Vice Chancellpor of Mzuzu University is from Britan but married in northern Mzimba.”
Mutharika said out of 258 people he has appointed, 40 are from the Southern Region.
“I have seen members of the faith community talk about [nepotism remarks], that is complete nonsense.” He said.
However, critics argue that key positions of the country are kept tin the Mulhakho wa Alhomwe family who includes the Malawi Defence Force commander ; Secretary to the Treasury; Governor of the Reserve Bank of Malawi, Head of National Intelligence Bureau; Foreign Affairs Minister and his controlling officers; Chief of Staff at State House; State House Director of Communications; two senior police officer in line to take over from current Inspector General when he retires; Commissioner General of Malawi Revenue Authority and his board chairman, Chief Secretary of the President & Cabinet, Director general of Macra, top officials of ESCOM & EGENCO and their board chairpersons, ADMARC CEO.
Follow and Subscribe Nyasa TV :
Peter Muthalika is the most nepotistic President in history of ths country. Taking by the lhomwe belt adage, how many key positions hav for given to the Yao belt, Chewa belt, Tumbuka belt etc. Your numerical maths formular is erroneous. You cant compare your single tribe to the rest of other tribes in Mw.
To correct your formula compare your lhomwe appointments to sena,tumbuka,yao etc. Stop being tribalistic & nepotistic. Ur the president of the whole Mw. Stop appointments liked to Wandale’s MUSt govt.
This is the reality & your facts do not make sense.
I will only stop when you people stop calling anyone from the North as “Mtumbuka!” We are also sick and tired of that!
Iwe Mtumbuka khala chete
Iwe Lhomwe belt khalanso chete nawe!!
Don’t respect he or she by calling lhomwe but call her or she ‘mnguru’ wakudya njoka
Chilungamo mulibe a president
The president should stop pretending he is not the perpetrator of nepotism in Malawi. Peter has methodically and meticulously not only spearheading but ALSO entrenching the culture of nepotism and mulhakhoism the rest of his tribesmen are just but following. It’s a follow the leader phenomenon. There’s an adage that says “actions speak louder than words”. Probably peter now is just waking up and catching up with reality. And that now politically it’s bound to backfire and he is uncomfortable with that. Not that he is NOT the perpetrator of nepotism. NO, It’s a BIG lie. In case Peter has… Read more »
Bwana President, you are even able to count appointments from other regions? So they must be very few indeed!!!!!
He is not crying ada A kukuonetsani inu mbuli za ndale. Koma mudabwatu chifukwa olo mutatitukwana bwanji ife alhomwe, we’re not going anywhere. Olo patakhala kuti pabwera president wina of which i rule Chakwera out, ife alhomwe tidzakhala tilipobe. Ndipo akamadzachita zotizunza tidzamulengaera njuchi ngsti pomwe tuinamupangila Kamuzu. Musamale inuyo. Ndipo nonse odana ndikunyoza alhomwe manyini amanu.
Tumbuka belt sounds good to me
You have forgotten to mention Chief Secretary of the President & Cabinet, Director general of Macra, top officials of ESCOM & EGENCO and their board chairpersons, ADMARC CEO, the list is endless. So merit applies in only one tribe? Your days are definitely numbered.
Alira alira ndipo sanati. Otherwise truth pains. Next ndi ma BP