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Of Chilapondwa and Musowa’s slurs

 Our members of Parliament (MP) never cease to amaze me. The other day it was legislator for Ntchisi South Ulemu Chilapondwa . Commenting on Leader of Opposition in Parliament Kondwani Nakhumwa’s response to the State of the Nation Address (Sona), Chilapondwa described cooking oil as a commodity for the elite. He said people in rural areas do not use cooking oil and so they are not affected by the rise in the price of the commodity. A very basic fact the former deputy minister of Agriculture forgot is that cooking oil is a must-have commodity for every household and for millions of Malawians regardless of their socioeconomic status. At every corner of the street there is someone frying and selling French fries (chiwaya). There with the French fryer is a bottle of cooking oil.

But Chilapondwa is a humble man. He has quickly eaten humble pie and apologized to Malawians for his careless remarks. But has he learnt anything from his slur? Is this not the same guy who in a Facebook post in July last year also courted controversy when he likened Malawians opposing enactment of a controversial bill to frogs?

The MP questioned Malawians who were opposing President Lazarus Chakwera and his administration’s decisions that doing so was like behaving like frogs which whine every time elephants come down to drink water in the river. No matter how the amphibians croak, they cannot stop the giant of the forest from drinking water from the well where they (frogs) live.

Apparently Chilapondwa went away with that unfortunate remark which was an insult to Malawians. But not this time! One can only hope he has learnt when to say something and when to zip his mouth when he has nothing substantive to say in the House.

Then as if the Chilapondwa’s slur was not bad enough, there comes the flamboyant Mulanje Bale legislator Victor Musowa with a statement exuding his self-importance. In short, Musowa asked the Office of the Speaker to request the Malawi Bureau of Standards (MBS) to investigate the bottled water that people in the House consume which he said has an unusual taste. He also claimed he found oil in the sealed water when he opened one of the branded bottles.

While it is in order for anyone to raise an eyebrow over a product they suspect to be substandard or defective, I find it out of order for the MP to suggest that the Office of the Speaker should always ensure that MBS diligently checks all the bottled water supplied to Parliament for consumption in the August house.

As a legislator, Musowa should be concerned, first and foremost, with the welfare of the people of his constituency and not himself alone or his fellow MPs. MBS is a statutory corporation with the mandate of enforcing quality and standards of products manufactured locally or imported. As a public entity, MBS exists for the wellbeing of everyone in the country. This is the role and mandate Musowa and his colleagues in Parliament should be reinforcing. I am sure Musowa will not be happy to be consuming good bottled water at Parliament while his constituents are drinking water mixed with oil.

But I am not surprised about Musowa’s confused role as an MP. In March last year, at a rally in Nsanje, he also drew controversy when he accused government for bringing to the people of Nsanje AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine instead of maize. At campaign rally the legislator said the district had been hit by food shortage. He said government should therefore have first given people maize instead of the vaccine.

Musowa’s remarks caused a storm in various social media platforms. But realizing his mistake, like Chilapondwa, he apologized to government, the Minister of Heal th Khumb i z e Kandodo-Chiponda and to the people of Malawi for his unfortunate remarks.

“I feel embarrassed because of what I said. I have received complaints from both low and high level class of people. I should not have said what I said.”

Long and short, Musowa like his brother in the House from Ntchisi South anadya mfulumira. I forgive both of them. But I hope from now onwards, they will think before saying anything in public

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