Neno PP aspirant hoards Joyce Banda’s free maize
People’s Party (PP) aspiring Member of Parliament for Neno South, Mutani Tambala, has refused to distribute the free maize from President Joyce Banda to people in her constituency.
Tambala told a group of his campaign team and chiefs over the weekend that she would not distribute the maize to avoid disturbing her campaign exercise.
President Banda is giving all her 193 parliamentary aspirants free maize which government allegedly got from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for the people of Malawi.
The aspirants are collecting the maize using their own resources from Kanengo in Lilongwe to distribute to people in their constituency.
According to some people who attended Tambala’s meeting on Saturday, the aspiring candidate told them distributing the maize now would create confusion among the electorates as such she would distribute it after elections.
However, the development has angered chiefs and their subjects in the constituency who desperately need the maize as hunger is hitting upon them hard.
“The shadow MP called us for a pre-rally meeting which she had on Saturday at Luwani area where she told us that she was not going to distribute the maize because the exercise may disturb her campaign. We are surprised with her move and we suspect something fishy,” one of the people who attended the meeting told Nyasa Times.
Among the people who attended the meeting included shadow councilor for Luwani Ward Faston Gongolo, Constituency Governor, Chiwaula, and members of her campaign team comprising Langwe, Masache and Zakalia.
Also present at the meeting were Group Village Head Malita and village headmen Chapita, Dzikolatha, Felemu, Dzala and Kuphedi.
The chiefs have since indicated they would press the shadow parliamentarian to ensure that she releases the president’s maize.
“We suspect she wants to give the maize to people who work at her parents’ farm but we will not allow that to happen. The president is giving out that maize not to benefit individuals but poor people in villages and it is unfair for her to divert it,” one of the chiefs told Nyasa Times in a seperate interview.
Tambala could not be reached on her mobile phone after several attempts for her comment as to why she thinks distribution of maize would disturb her campaign.
The UAE government donated the 13 500 metric tonnes of maize to Malawi Government through Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan Foundation meant to benefit about 8000 hunger-stricken families.
Each Peoples Party aspiring MP is receiving 1 000 bags of maize to buy people’s vote in the May 20 tripartite elections.
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