President Peter Mutharika yesterday repeatedly branded people who originated social media claims that he was dead as failures and “critically ill” awaiting death in the May 21 2019 Tripartite Elections.
In a bitter tone and fuming, the President expressed his sentiments at Mangochi Stadium after he officially opened the 75-kilometre rehabilitated Mangochi-Liwonde Road financed by the African Development Bank (AfDB) to the tune of K29 billion.
Mutharika said he was not surprised to be a target of bad wishes because his challengers in the election know that his governing Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is destined for victory.
He said: “Ndikunenetsa anthuwa ndiwanyenyanyenya… Komanso ndiwang’amba pa tsiku lachisankho pa May 21 2019. Ndipo asayerekeze chifukwa ana a dad akonzeka kuwavotera a dad awo. [I will outclass them in the election. I have the support of the masses].”
Mutharika said he was development oriented and ready to see Malawi develop to levels of first world countries such as Germany; hence, he will prioritise projects such as roads, community technical colleges and secondary schools if given a fresh five-year mandate through the ballot.
He said: “I yearn to do more. I want Mangochi to become a world-class city. I will also construct the Makanjira-Mangochi Road, Chilipa-Balaka Road and upgrade Balaka-Liwonde Road up to Zomba. This is happening after my party wins the elections.”
Mutharika also challenged his critics to mind their language.
He urged people against voting for the opposition Malawi Congress Party (MCP), saying the party is associated with many atrocities during its 31-year single-party rule from 1964 to 1994.
But MCP leadership has often dismissed such attacks, stating that none of its current crop was involved in atrocities.
In January 2016, MCP president Lazarus Chakwera, who assumed the party’s leadership in 2013, took advantage of the funeral service of freedom fighter and first female Cabinet member Rose Chibambo to seek forgiveness from the public for the said one-party atrocities.
He said: “It’s time Malawians accepted that what happened to people like the one we are burying today [Chibambo] should be forgiven and forgotten.”
But reacting to the apology then, legal scholar Edge Kanyongolo of Chancellor College, a constituent college of the University of Malawi, said while it was a good move, the apology should have been preceded by a full confession.
He said: “That’s [confession] what we are lacking as many people have not come forward to confess what they did during the atrocities.”
