Freedom Party President Khumbo Kachali, an influential figure within the Tonse Alliance, has rejected recent statements made by former President Joyce Banda, leader of the People’s Party, as misleading. Kachali reaffirmed his party’s commitment to the Tonse Alliance, dismissing Banda’s claims of the coalition’s collapse as merely her personal opinion, not indicative of the broader alliance’s stance.
Banda had informed supporters at a rally in Naisi, Zomba, that she recently met with President Lazarus Chakwera in Mzuzu, where she was allegedly told that the alliance would dissolve after the MCP’s convention. In his response, Kachali asserted that Banda should speak for herself and not on behalf of the Freedom Party.
“Whatever Joyce Banda has said should not be a blanket statement for everyone because she was not given the mandate to speak on behalf of Freedom Party. We will speak on our own. Two; the agreement between Freedom Party and MCP is not the same as MCP and People’s Party. We do not know what they agreed and we are not interested to know. We have our own agreement,” he said.
In an interview, Mafunde leader George Nnesa, who also serves as the spokesperson for the Tonse Alliance, suggested that Banda was likely speaking on behalf of the People’s Party, which had an agreement with the MCP dating back to 2019.
“If it was on Tonse Alliance we would all be there to discuss the issue. The fact that it was just the two of them they may have been discussing on their own alliance of 2019,” said Nnesa.
When questioned about how long Mafunde will remain in the alliance, Nnesa emphasized the need for a meeting where all partners can collectively decide on the future course now that parties are holding conventions. He expressed his expectation that President Chakwera will convene the meeting to reach a resolution “as a united team rather than as individual parties.
