The family of departed vice-president Saulos Chilima has said it will proceed with its planned memorial mass and service at Nsipe in Ntcheu where the former second citizen was buried last June.
The development comes after representatives of the Malawi Government met the family in Lilongwe on Tuesday and briefed them about plans to hold a memorial event at Nthungwa in Viphya Plantation, the site of the military plane crash that killed Chilima and eight others on June 10 2024.
In an interview yesterday, spokesperson for the family, Dr Ben Chilima said they told government officials that they cannot change the arrangement because they have been planning for the same for the past three months.
Said Chilima: “They [government] announced that there was that proposal of a special event at Nthungwa by government and asked for our plans because they heard that we will be at Nsipe.
“We told them that we have been planning the Nsipe event for the past three months and it is now fixed. So, it’s not a reasonable thing to change at the last minute and we will proceed. Let government continue with other plans, whether at Nthungwa or any other place.”
However, Chilima said some family members based in the Northern Region might attend the Nthungwa ceremony.
He also said that during the meeting the government wanted to know if it could proceed to help with the construction of a mausoleum for the late Chilima.
Said Chilima: “They were checking with us whether we are okay with them continuing with their help on our plans to build a mausoleum at Nsipe and we wanted it finished by 10 June.
“But because it couldn’t be finished by that time, we asked that the contractor should come after that date. We have some engineers in the family who are liaising with them on designs and financing issues, but it seems like government will fund everything on the mausoleum.”
In a separate interview, Minister of Information and Digitilisation Moses Kunkuyu said wider consultations have been made involving all concerned parties, including families and religious leaders.
“Few details still remain before we make a final statement from government. We want to make sure that as Malawians we honour the departed in a very inclusive manner,” he said.
UTM Party, which the late Chilima co-founded and led, also announced that it would join the family at Nsipe in Ntcheu.
Meanwhile, governance expert George Chaima has said he is not surprised to see the two sides taking different directions, although this was not supposed to be the case.
He said: “It sends very bad signals to the world since it shows that there is no national unity in this country. It also sends strong campaign messages to voters to think twice before they cast their votes.”
Chilima, former first lady Patricia Shanil Dzimbiri and seven others were aboard a Malawi Defence Force Dornier 228 MAFT03 from Lilongwe to Mzuzu Airport when it crashed in Viphya Plantation.
Findings of the inquiry ruled out foul play and attributed the accident to bad weather and other human factors.
On the other hand, investigators from German Federal Bureau of Aircraft Accident Investigation (BFU), in their preliminary report last August, shared some details of circumstances surrounding the accident which raised questions regarding the aircraft’s fitness to carry passengers.
