Ngwira under fire
People’s Party (PP) provincial governor (North) the Reverend Christopher Mzomera Ngwira has come under fire over his announcement about leadership changes in the party suggesting that Khumbo Kachali is interim leader.
In an interview with The Nation yesterday, PP vice-president (Central) Uladi Mussa warned that nobody should ever dream of replacing founding president Joyce Banda without passing a stringent test of a committee headed by him.
Said Mussa: “One cannot just come up and say here is your leader. Actually, it is unacceptable and undemocratic for one region to endorse a person as a party leader and expect others to follow.
“Joyce Banda is still our leader. She hasn’t resigned. If she leaves office, we will call for a national executive committee [NEC] meeting to appoint her successor or to call for a convention. Either way, NEC will meet to look at the potential successors and I will chair that meeting.”
Mussa, who is PP vice-president responsible for Central Region, said Section 14 of the PP constitution requires the first vice-president to take over power if its leader resigns, dies or is incapacitated.
He said in the absence of the vice-president—as has been the case since Kachali stepped down in May 2014 after falling out of favour for endorsing Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) president Peter Mutharika ahead of last year’s polls in which Banda appointed Sosten Gwengwe as her runningmate—the top seat goes to second and third vice-president.
Ngwira has sparked controversy after unveiling Kachali as interim leader in the absence of Banda who has been away since losing the presidency last year.
Currently, Mussa is immediately above Mongochi Monkey Bay member of Parliament (MP) Ralph Jooma who Banda handpicked as vice-president for the East Region. Banda had also appointed Mzimba West MP Harry Mkandawire to replace Kachali as well as Brown Mpinganjira to replace Mohammad Sidik Mia who quit politics a few months after being elected second vice-president (South) at a convention in 2013.
However, both Mpinganjira and Mkandawire recently resigned from their positions, a move political analysts described as a glimpse of worse times to come in PP.
On Monday, Mustafa Hussein, a political analyst based at the University of Malawi’s Chancellor College, observed that the announcement of Kachali as interim leader without following the party constitution could be a sign of chaos in PP.
Mussa described Ngwira’s machinations to push Kachali as interim leader as “a political coup d’e tat”.
He said: “If Kachali wants to come back to the party, he can join. But it is unprocedural for one person to say the former Veep is now our interim leader. It’s a political coup d’e tat.”
Kachali on Monday said he was not after taking over any position as he had returned to PP to play an active role in revamping it, explaining: “The party has procedures and we will talk about positions when time comes.”
Incumbent Banda will be at the helm of PP until 2017 when her position will be up for grabs, according to party secretary general Ibrahim Matola.
Banda and Kachali were expelled from DPP in December 2010 for allegedly forming parallel party structures. However, the two were on record as having said their dismissal was because they refused to endorse presidential candidature of Peter Mutharika.
