The Veep who fired his boss

At the height of Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) dominance in 2018 emerged Saulos Klaus Chilima (SKC) from the blue empire to challenge what he termed political impunity and worsening corruption allegedly orchestrated by people in power.

His strong stance against such ills as nepotism, tribalism and other “isms” quickly endeared him to people who did not align with the political ideologies of DPP and the Malawi Congress Party (MCP).

It was a foregone conclusion of who would win the June 23 2020 Fresh Presidential Elections when Chilima partnered MCP candidate Lazarus Chakwera to contest on Tonse Alliance ticket.

In 2019 SKC ran a vigorous campaign to unseat his boss, former president Peter Mutharika.

Blantyre-based political commentator Ernest Thindwa argues that Chilima demonstrated that he was an astute orator, an electoral strategist and great mobiliser of the electorate.

He explains: “He offered a significant departure from the largely issueless and choice-less campaign slogans which characterised the electoral landscape before his entry into the political arena.

“To many, he represented desirable change within the political establishment and the wider society.”

His running mate in the 2019 nullified Presidential Election Michael Usi, who is also Minister of Natural Resources and Climate Change, says “Chilima was a politician that was informed by critical-analysis of situations.

“He was always for unity and was a fierce orator and marketer of ideologies. He was patriotic and kind,” he says.

It appears Chilima carried the same energy into the new administration, going by President Chakwera’s description in his speech on Tuesday.

Chakwera said: “Dr. Saulos Klaus Chilima was a good man, a devoted father and husband, a patriotic citizen who served his country with distinction, and a formidable Vice President.

“I consider it one of the greatest honours of my life to have had him as my deputy and counsellor for the past four years, and his passing is a terrible loss to his wife Mary, his family, his friends, his colleagues in Cabinet, and to all of us as a nation that found his leadership and courage a source of inspiration.”

Frederick Changaya, Chilima’s close friend, explains that SKC about a better place.

He says: “Each time you hear him speak, it was a man that wanted good things for this country.  In our chats it was always how Malawi can meaningfully progress socioeconomically.

“Too much love for the people of Malawi. I won’t forget.”

Despite being Vice-President, Changaya says SKC was approachable and collaborative.

“When we asked him to shelve his presidential ambitions in 2020 to support Chakwera, he against all odds, gave up pursuing the ambition because he, always saw good even in things that made him ‘less’. He was willing to lose himself to gain a better Malawi,” he argues.

Early days

Saulos Klaus Chilima was studying economics at Chancellor College (Chanco) in Zomba during the uprising against one-party rule.

Until the June 14 1993 Referendum, he was leading the students’ wing of Alliance for Democracy (Aford), founded by the poster-face of the struggle for multi-party politics—the late Chakufwa Chihana.

His contemporaries at Chanco, by then a constituent college of the University of Malawi, spoke of an ambitious adolescent who would stop at nothing to achieve his dreams.  

Born on February 12 1973 in Blantyre, Chilima was one of the students who backed Catholic Bishops who were receiving death threats after issuing Living Our Faith, a Pastoral Letter which shook the foundations of founding president Hastings Kamuzu Banda and Malawi Congress Party’s (MCP) 31-year regime.

This year, 31 years later, he was Malawi’s fifth vice-president, thanks to the former governing Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) which he ditched in 2018 to found his UTM Party.

Chilima, who established himself as a goal-getter in the private sector, was the managing director for Airtel Malawi plc when he made a surprise announcement of his resignation to become former president Peter Mutharika’s running mate in 2014 Tripartite Elections.

Education

Chilima attended Henry Henderson Institute (HHI) Dharap primary schools in Blantyre.

He then went to Mtendere Secondary School in Dedza, from where he was selected to study social science at Chanco. He obtained a bachelor’s degree in economics in 1994. From 2003 to 2005, he studied for Master of Arts in economics at the college.

In 2015, he obtained a doctorate in knowledge management from the University of Bolton in the UK.

Career

For 20 years, he worked in the private sector. As a fresh graduate, he joined Lever Brothers (Now Unilever) in 1995 before working for Leasing and Finance Company of Malawi. Thereafter, he worked with Southern Bottlers Limited (Carlsberg Malawi).

In 2006, he joined Airtel Malawi plc (then Celtel) where he rose to become the first Malawian managing director of the multi-national mobile telecommunication company.

Politics

In February 2014, Mutharika appeared at Comesa Hall in Blantyre along with Chilima as his running mate on the DPP ticket.

It was a decision which surprised many. Those stuck in comfort zones labelled the switch as ‘risky’, wondering why one would quit ‘a lucrative job’ to join politics.

However, Mutharika and Chilima narrowly won the elections, consigning the sitting president Joyce Banda to position three.

Immediately, Mutharika appointed his No.2 chairperson of Malawi Public Service Reforms Commission which was tasked to make the civil service and State agencies efficient, effective and professional.

However, Chilima lost the position in 2017 amid masked rifts with Mutharika.

The vice-president was also stripped of his delegated role at the helm of the Department of Disaster Management Affairs.    

Fallout with APM

Chilima was not the first vice-president to fall out with a sitting president. Justin Malawezi (1994 to 2004) fell out with Bakili Muluzi the same way Cassim Chilumpha (2004 to 2009) and Joyce Banda (2009 to 2012) disagreed with Bingu wa Mutharika.

Malewezi described the vice-presidency as a poisoned chalice.

When Chilima quit DPP to form UTM Party, he only came short of stating that he had had a fair share of the chalice.

On July 21 2018, Chilima launched UTM Party at Masintha Ground in Lilongwe where he accused the DPP-led government of worsening corruption and nepotism.

“This country is on fire; people are stealing everyday and if we do not do anything now, we will have nothing in our coffers by next year,” he said, detailing a 12-point plan to develop Malawi.

2019 elections

Chilima went into the 2019 Tripartite Elections carrying the hopes of most urban people, university students and “neutrals” who did not align themselves with either DPP or MCP.

However, he came third in the controversial elections whose results were nullified by the Constitutional Court, citing massive irregularities, including the use of tippex. 

In the June 2023 Fresh Presidential Election, Chilima’s UTM Party and eight others joined MCP to form a nine-party Tonse Alliance to field one candidate to unseat DPP.

Just as in February 2014, Chilima surprised many when he stood alongside MCP leader Lazarus Chakwera as running mate.

Following Mutharika’s footsteps, Chakwera in July 2020 appointed Chilima to lead Public Sector Reforms. 

Corruption charges

But in December 2022, hell broke loose when the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) arrested Chilima for allegedly receiving $280 000 and other items from United Kingdom-based businessperson Zuneth Sattar as a reward to assist in the award of government’s contracts to companies belonging to Sattar.  The State dropped in May this year, clearing his state.