APM warns critics,says they risk firing
Former president Peter Mutharika has warned critics within the rank and file of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) that they risk expulsion if they choose to undermine his authority.
Speaking in an interview after addressing a rally on Saturday in Mzuzu, he said people such as his 2019 running mate Everton Chimulirenji have been loyal and need all the resources at their disposal to get back into power.
His sentiments come amid queries within the party on why he was appointing to positions some people who lost at the party’s elective conferences.
But the former president told The Nation that the DPP constitution empowers the party’s leader to do so.
He said: “You always have a few people who don’t like others and don’t want to work with those I appointed. But we don’t have to like each other, you can’t like everybody. The aim is for all of us to work together.
“If they continue to undermine my authority, because they don’t want to work with those I have appointed, I will fire them. This time, I don’t want nonsense, because we have had a lot of stupidity and I will not allow that, if anyone doesn’t like that, they are out.”
After the convention in early August, Mutharika has appointed a number of people, who lost in the convention, as his advisers.
Notable faces include former Attorney General Charles Mhango as adviser on legal affairs, Leader of Opposition in Parliament George Chaponda as adviser on policy development while former secretary general Clement Mwale is now director of political affairs.
Mutharika said people like Chimulirenji, whom he appointed as adviser on campaign, and former Blantyre Malabada legislator Aaron Sangala as adviser on operations, have been loyal to the party and did not even contest the convention.
He said: “I don’t think there is any problem using the elected people and taking advantage of the vast knowledge of those who lost at the convention. Some of these people go back to the days when [former president] Bingu [wa Mutharika] died, this party was dead, and many people left, but these people were with me.
“I have a sense of loyalty to these people. If someone doesn’t like that, it’s too bad. They can leave the party, if they don’t like my authority. This thing is so trivial and if someone doesn’t like my authority, they are free to leave.”
During the time of heated wrangles in DPP, legal and political pundits punched holes into the party’s constitution for placing so much power in its president who can choose to reshuffle positions in the national governing council (NGC) at will.
University of Malawi law professor Garton Kamchedzera is on record as having said it was hard to believe that “a democratic and progressive party” had such a provision in its constitution.
“It’s irreconcilable and very hard to make sense of a party in this era and under the Constitution that Malawi has to have a political party that is going back to times of dictatorship,” he said.
Governance expert George Chaima said all problems DPP has been going through are due to “too much power being given to Mutharika”.
Article 10 (8) of the DPP constitution states that the president shall have the power to assign a member of the NGC to any public or political office and such a member shall cease to hold his or her original office.
