The Northern Region of Malawi, which was once described as “the home of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP),” has apparently become the party’s grave.
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This follows Monday’s claims by the party’s former regional governor and national youth director Frank Mwenefumbo that the North is now the home of the People’s Party (PP).
Speaking in separate interviews, Mwenefumbo and former DPP regional director of youth Boniface Mkandawire, aka Gotani wa Gotani, claimed all regional committee members now support PP “as DPP proved to be a dictatorial party.â€
Said Mwenefumbo, who kept apologising to the new President and the entire nation during the interview: “It is not just me and Gotani, it is the entire region. No one has been left behind. If you want to know the reasons, it is simply because Joyce Banda is not a stranger to the DPP. We went to elections together in 2009 and she won under that banner. People who are defecting are just reaffirming their support and position to her because they know what she stands for.
“It is a fact that there was an ideological difference between the two leaders. President Joyce Banda, I would say now, stood for a more democratic principle because she contested the lack of transparency and lack of accountability in DPP under the former leadership.
“Now she has been vindicated, not by us, but God. So, who are we to stand against the will of God today? Who are we not to succumb and bow in shame in what we stood for?”
He said though Banda has declared there will be no vengeance, it is proper that all DPP members should still bow down and apologise as no one was innocent.
He claimed DPP members, including himself, who went to town castigating Banda for expressing alternative views while in DPP, were acting under pressure from then president Bingu wa Mutharika; hence, kept messing up the country.
“We must give credit to President Joyce Banda and [Mzimba South West MP] Khumbo Kachali for their uniqueness to stand out against the strong dictatorship that was there [in DPP]. These are the heroes and champions we must admire and emulate,” said Mwenefumbo.
Mkandawire said Banda’s obligation is to fix the economy, regain donor support and remove bad laws and not worry about party building—claiming defectors are joining PP.
Mutharika founded DPP in 2005 after ditching the United Democratic Front (UDF), a party that sponsored his ticket to State House in the 2004 general elections. That was Mutharika’s second attempt after miserably performing in the 1999 general elections on his defunct United Party (UP) ticket.
“It is good that they want to work with her but it should be based on things that she will set. My advice could be that she needs not to be taken up by these people and there should not be any appeasement,” said Chinsinga.
