Professor Peter Mutharika, President of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and former President of the republic has been what most have held him to be—an incompetent leader. When his brother late Bingu Wa Mutharika was President, he appointed him to different ministerial portfolios which he performed below par the notable case of the Ministry of Education where he failed to handle the academic freedom saga then. Despite all his mediocrity, Malawians still elected him President of the Republic of Malawi and the mediocrity now was but for all to see. He couldn’t react in time. The country was being run by some people, the bodyguard and such people as Ben Phiri who led the country down the drain until Malawians had enough of the incompetence punctuated by nepotism and cronyism and decided to kick him out of power in 2020.
What it meant is that Mutharika was left with only DPP to run as its President and from 2020 to date, Mutharika has failed to bring sanity to the DPP. His leadership mediocrity is now for everyone to see again but Malawians don’t care anymore because it is their own party affairs and not national affairs where everyone was concerned.
The latest series showing Mutharika lack of leadership skills is a pending legal suit where party officials in the North were fired from their positions. The three members are Mr. Ackim Mwanza, Mr. Kelvin Chirambo and Mrs Joyce Chikukula who were dismissed from the positions of Regional Governor, Director of Youth and Director of Women, respectively, in the Northern Region.
These three have sought the legal representation of Jivason and Company which has since written a letter asking Mutharika to reinstate them within 72 hours failing which they will seek legal remedy in court.
Reads the letter signed by Counsel George Jivason Kadzipatike to Mutharika copied to Charles Mhango, the party’s Director of Legal Affairs:
“Our clients were diligently serving the DPP in the said positions when the DPP purportedly dismissed them from their positions on or around 11th December, 2022 for the Regional Governor and on or around 31st March, 2023 for the Mrs Joyce Chikukula and Mr. Kelvin Chirambo. The DPP dismissed our clients without either consulting them or affording them their right to be heard.”
Proceeds the letter:
“In our considered view, the fact that the Administrative Secretary who communicated the dismissals did not provide reasons for the dismissals of the three means that he and the party had no reasons for the decisions. If our clients had committed any offence, the DPP should have followed its own Constitution by referring them to its Disciplinary Committee which is mandated to follow principles of natural justice under Article 15(3) of the DPP Constitution. We have also noted that the letters dismissing our clients from their positions do not indicate the organ of the DPP which sat in the absence of our clients and decided to dismiss them. In the absence of such indication, it is difficult to believe that the decisions to dismiss our clients were made by the rightful organ mandated by the DPP Constitution to make such decisions. It is possible that the decisions might have been made by an individual who has no authority under the DPP Constitution to make such decisions.”
The letter then went to attack convict Mzomera Ngwira whom the party made regional governor.
“Further, we have read the communication from Honourable Shadric Namalomba, MP dated 11th December, 2022 to the general public in which he explains about the DPP’s decision to re-instate Rev. Mzomera Ngwira as Regional Governor for the Northern Region. While the DPP through that communication purports to create the impression that the offence of abuse of office is more serious than the offence of misuse of office of which, the communication says, Mr. Christopher Mzomera Ngwira was convicted, the two offences are of equal gravity as they are provided under the same section 25B(1) of the Corrupt Practices Act, and as they carry the same maximum punishment of 12 years imprisonment with hard labour. Rev. Mzomera Ngwira was convicted on or around 16th October 2020.
“The High Court merely reduced his sentence but maintained his conviction. Article 6(1) iii of the DPP Constitution does not allow any person convicted of an offence involving murder, theft, corruption, dishonesty or moral turpitude to hold any leadership position in the DPP within a period of seven (7) years from the date of such conviction. Having regard to the seriousness of the offence of which Rev. Mzomera Ngwira was convicted about three (3) years ago, it is very clear to everyone including Your Excellency that Rev. Mzomera Ngwira is not eligible to hold any leadership position in the DPP.”
According to the letter “the decision to replace Mr. Ackim Mwanza with Rev. Mzomera Ngwira as Regional Governor for the Northern Region, and the decisions dismissing Mr. Kelvin Chirambo and Mr. Joyce Chikukula, are decisions which are not only unfair, unreasonable, and violative of principles of natural justice but also create the bad impression that the DPP is lawless and does not even follow its own Constitution to the letter.”
Concludes the letter:
“In light of the foregoing, our clients demand that they should be re-instated to their respective positions before close of business on Tuesday, the 9th day of May 2023. Otherwise, our clients will, on 10th May, 2023, file a legal action against the DPP and Your Excellency in the High Court of Malawi, to seek the reliefs of reinstatement, damages and legal costs.
We have attached the material communications to this letter for your ease of reference.”
