Taken out of context: Daud Suleman hits back at claims over Chilima crash Facebook post

A former telecoms regulator chief has been forced to publicly defend himself before Parliament, after a cryptic Facebook post he made on the very day of the plane crash that killed former vice-president Saulos Chilima sparked a wave of online speculation suggesting he somehow had advance knowledge of the tragedy.

Daud Suleman, who previousl

y served as Director General of the Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (MACRA), told the Parliamentary ad-hoc committee investigating the June 2024 disaster that his social media activity had been “taken out of context” in the aftermath of the crash — and flatly rejected claims linking the post to any prior knowledge of the doomed flight.

The controversy centres on a post Suleman shared on his personal Facebook page on June 10, 2024 — the very day the aircraft carrying Chilima and eight others vanished — which read: “Ndinu mafana owaza. Azinzanga, chonde musadzafe. Win this week. Hustle harder.”

Social media users quickly seized on the cryptic message, with speculation swirling online that the words could somehow be connected to the tragedy.

But Suleman has firmly pushed back, insisting the post had nothing whatsoever to do with the crash and was never intended to convey any information about the aircraft, its location, or any impending events.

According to Suleman, the words were simply lyrics from a song he enjoys — and crucially, not the first time he had referenced the very same track online.

He revealed he had posted using identical lines from the same song weeks earlier, on May 15, 2024 — nearly a month before the crash — in what he says is clear evidence the post was entirely unrelated to the disaster.

Suleman has now urged the committee to examine the full context of his social media history, rather than judging the June 10 post in isolation, insisting his conduct must be assessed fairly.

“My purpose is not to avoid scrutiny, but to ensure that my conduct is assessed based on evidence and actual circumstances known at that time rather than conclusions drawn retrospectively,” he told the committee.

The extraordinary intervention adds yet another layer to an inquiry already grappling with a string of unanswered questions and conflicting accounts surrounding the events leading up to the crash that claimed the life of Malawi’s former vice-president and eight others.