Chisiza attacks politicians in new play

Months after staging controversial play Semo, Thlupego Chisiza and Lions Theatre are at it again.

This time, Chisiza has hit hard at politicians who are continuously defecting from opposition parties to the ruling People’s Party (PP) at the expense of the electorate.

The group’s political satire Go to Hell, launched at Kamuzu College of Nursing in Lilongwe on Saturday, dramatises events before, during and after the death of president Bingu wa Mutharika who formed the spine of Semo—the play which saw Chisiza being arrested and fined for staging a public performance without permission from the Censorship Board.

In the new plays, radio personality Deus Sandram plays president Mwazi Dinyero. He is surrounded by bootlickers who have nothing to offer apart from showering him with unfaltering praise and worship. Instead of channelling their energies on alleviating fuel shortages, erratic power supply, forex dry spells and other economic crises in their country, the president and his DZD government concentrates on petty issues. Whether he will win or not during 2014 elections, the president commits political suicide for forcing his only daughter to abort because she married a son of his archrival—the vice-president.

When the president dies, his bootlickers change colours and flood the gates of the veep who takes over.

In an interview, Chisiza said the play is a means of showing the Malawians’ rage at political defectors who have marred the country’s transition since Mutharika’s death on April 5 this year.

“Just like many Malawians, I am happy with those who are earning themselves high positions by associating themselves with the current President [Joyce Banda] because we know they are driven by voracious greed to enrich themselves at the expense of Malawians,” said the playwright-cum-actor.

He warns the political prostitutes to beware of 2014 general elections as people are eager to exact vengeance on greedy politicians.