MCP snubs APM over dinner

Main opposition Malawi Congress Party (MCP) has chided President Peter Mutharika for extravagance and snubbed his invitation to a State House dinner scheduled for Tuesday night.

Mutharika, according to the MCP MPs—including rising star Juliana Lunguzi of Dedza East—who addressed the press from the party’s headquarters in Lilongwe, invited the lawmakers to celebrate the passing of the 2015/16 National Budget.

But the MCP lawmakers yesterday strongly criticised the move to host a banquet barely days after revelations that Treasury had failed to pay civil servants their June salaries due to financial woes.

The dinner at Kamuzu Palace in Lilongwe was still expected to proceed as we went to press.

According to the MCP legislators, their president Lazarus Chakwera was also expected to join the boycott, but the party’s vice-president and Speaker of the National Assembly Richard Msowoya could attend the dinner.

Lunguzi, who also heads the parliamentary health committee, said the planned feast came on the back of spending cuts in several crucial government departments, including health.

Lunguzi argued that “it will be immoral to dine and wine while people are dying because ambulances are grounded due to fuel unavailability.

MCP lawmaker and party spokesperson Jessie Kabwila said the party did not reject the offer for political reasons, but to demonstrate that it cares for the welfare of ordinary Malawians and frustrated civil servants.

Minister of Information and Civic Education Kondwani Nankhumwa, currently outside the country, yesterday said he was not aware of the developments; hence, could not immediately comment on the matter.

Several attempts to speak to Leader of the House Francis Kasaila and State House press secretary Gerald Viola proved futile.