Nankhumwa dictates terms for DPP dialogue

Estranged Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) vice-president (South) Kondwani Nankhumwa says the former governing party should first withdraw letters of dismissal for him and three others, if meaningful dialogue is to take place.

In an interview yesterday, Nankhumwa said if the dismissal letters are withdrawn, the group consisting of himself, party secretary general Grezelder Jeffrey, treasurer-general Jappie Mhango and Mulanje West legislator Yusuf Nthenda, will proceed to withdraw the court case against their October 2020 firing from the party.

DPP spokesperson Brown Mpinganjira yesterday said the proposal will be considered by a special task force handling the matter. He said discussions are ongoing after Nankhumwa and party president Peter Mutharika failed to agree on the way forward last November.

Mpinganjira said: “If they had made such a proposal to the task force, I am very sure that it will respond accordingly.

Nankhumwa, who is Mulanje Central legislator and Leader of Opposition in Parliament, said he had not discussed the matter again with Mutharika or any of his agents since the November meeting.

“There is completely nothing! The call for us to adjourn the court case indefinitely to pave the way for round table discussions was not done in good faith. That was political backstabbing.

“The president [Mutharika] should walk the talk. We already asked him to consider withdrawing the perceived letters of dismissal for the four of us and in turn we shall go back to the court and withdraw the case. That way the party can easily work as a unified block,” said Nankhumwa.

On the functional review process, Mpinganjira said both the consultants they had engaged and the in-house functional review committee led by vice-president responsible for Eastern Region Bright Msaka have completed field work and are currently analysing the data.

DPP set up a Functional Review Committee to submit its findings on the party’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats on the ground.

In an interview, Mzuzu University based political analyst Chrispin Mphande said DPP leaders should put aside their egos and work to rebuild the party which has seen supporters divided because of divisions.

He said: “By now, we expected the top leadership to have mended fences. DPP being the main opposition party is losing its grip on the ground. People are asking: ‘Who do we follow? Nankhumwa or Mutharika? Or [former Reserve Bank of Malawi governor] Dalitso Kabambe?’ This puts the supporters in an awkward position and a recipe for trouble in the party’s future.”

Mphande said procrastination on a convention is dangerous for DPP, hence the need to hold it early enough so that the party leads with one person as its pilot.

Mustafa Hussein, political and administrative studies lecturer at Chancellor College—a constituent college of the University of Malawi—said yesterday that they all need to start on the level playing ground.

“They need to clear their differences and the court case should be withdrawn to start afresh. Otherwise, there will always be problems between Nankhumwa and the Mutharika camp. The major solution is holding of the convention. If it was held, everything else would be sorted out,” he said.

Cracks in DPP came to light after Jeffrey told The Nation that Mutharika had done his part and that the party needed a new person to lead it into the future.

However, the sentiments did not go down well with Mutharika who asked Jeffrey to apologise. Even after the two met to mend fences, nothing changed.

Later, the party fired Nankhumwa alongside Jeffrey, Mhango and Nthenda for allegedly influencing the rejection of Mutharika’s appointee, Francis Kasaila, as Leader of Opposition in Parliament.

Mutharika lost the court-ordered June 23 2020 fresh presidential election to the nine-party Tonse Alliance led by MCP president Lazarus Chakwera who partnered Mutharika’s then estranged Vice-President Saulos Chilima of UTM.

Mutharika took over the leadership of DPP after the death of his brother, Bingu in April 2012, propelling the party to victory in the 2014 Tripartite Elections.