The questions Mary Chilima says Malawi still hasn’t faced
There was a steadiness to Mary Chilima’s appearance before the Parliamentary Ad Hoc Committee — the composure of someone who has lived with unanswered questions since the June 2024 crash that killed her husband, former vice‑president Saulos Chilima, and eight others.
Her testimony was not emotional; it was pointed.Her most striking concern centred on the aircraft’s Emergency Locator Transmitter (ELT).
The German Federal Bureau of Aircraft Accident Investigation has already confirmed the device’s battery expired in 2004, leaving it non‑functional two decades before the crash.
The Malawi Defence Force told investigators that spare parts were unavailable and no budget had been allocated to replace it.Yet search teams still sought assistance from South Africa to help locate the ELT signal.
“The ELT died in 2004,” she told MPs. “If they knew it was not working, why asking for help to locate it?”
Chilima also questioned the aircraft’s flight path, particularly the 11 minutes spent in what she described as the “yellow or danger line” over mountainous terrain.
Her concern was whether the crew fully understood the landscape they were flying through — and whether situational awareness failed at a critical moment.
Her testimony extended beyond technical issues. She recalled scolding the Inspector General of Police, Merlyn Yolamu, for what she saw as a delayed search response on the evening the aircraft went missing.
She had wanted to join the search immediately but was told no one yet knew the crash location.
Chilima also described her husband as a man who understood the risks of political life. His convoy had been stoned in Phalombe in 2020, an incident that left him cautious and insistent on security for his family.
Asked about his relationship with then‑president Lazarus Chakwera, she offered only a guarded reply: “We met things. Others public, others we don’t say.”
She pointed to the corruption case — dropped just weeks before the crash — as context enough.
Two years on, her testimony was less about grief than about clarity. She is not seeking sympathy. She is seeking answers.
Follow and Subscribe Nyasa TV :