Nyondo slams ‘so called big parties’ in Malawi
National Salvation Front (NASAF) has slammed at major political parties in Malawi saying they are not big at all but regional or tied to families.
“For starters, Malawi does not yet have national political parties. They are all either regionally or family led,” notd said NASAF president James Nyondo at a news conference in Lilongwe on Monday.
“Even in matters of succession, it is the son, the brother, the uncle or the grandfather who takes over. These so called big parties are determined to choose goal scorers (strikers) who are either members of their families or members of their tribe.”
Nyondo likened the big parties to a football club where the founder of the club insists that the top striker must be his son or his nephew, brother or member of his tribe regardless of talent. He wondered whether such club would win.
“For Malawi government, the presidents when arranging succession reduce the office of president into a joke: after all they reason, the president’s job in Malawi is to conduct mass rallies, lay foundation stones, travel around the world to collect allowances and to give out ‘gifts’. That is why Malawi as a nation is going nowhere. We have
wrong people in parliament, in the cabinet and in our state houses. Our most able citizens are not allowed to play any role in managing the affairs of this nation,” said Nyondo.
Nyondo further slammed at leaders in Malawi whom he said know one thing: raise their side of the boat forgetting that they are in the middle of the lake.
“When the boat capsizes, they too will drown. Our present horrible situation begins and ends with our politicians. 2014 is around the corner, any politician who has played any role since 1994, must go,” he charged.
Commenting on the cashgate scandal, Nyondo said it started with Bakili Muluzi administration, continued with the Bingu wa Mutharika era and spilled over to the current Joyce Banda administration.
He said: “Our first President, Dr. Hastings Banda left us a professional civil service. It was the best in Africa. In 1994, 19 Principal Secretaries, whose only crime was having served with excellence the Hastings Banda government were summarily relieved of their posts through transfers `and retirements. Politicians started contaminating the civil service. They started ordering the controlling officers to authorize dubious expenditures and payments.
“Malawi is a nation with limited opportunities. These controlling officers had two choices: join the ranks of the unemployed or allow to be corrupted by the new political masters whose chief idea of leading the nation was to give out ‘gifts’ to their favored ones. Anyone who steals for you will eventually steal from you.”
He also spoke against giving out gifts.
“We all know that if we were to add up the amount of ‘gifts’ our leaders have given to their favored ones from 1994 to today, the many vehicles political parties buy when they get into government, their party materials, their personal wealth which they amass within a few months of getting into office: our hospitals would have had 5-10
ambulances each, enough beddings, equipment, our nurses, doctors and their support staff would love their jobs because they would be properly compensated,” he said.
