President Lazarus Chakwera has appealed to Malawians to come to terms with findings of the Commission of Inquiry into the plane crash that killed Vice-President Saulos Chilima and eight others in June this year.
Speaking at Kamuzu Palace in Lilongwe yesterday when the commission presented to him its report released on Saturday, the President said it was important for society to believe in the inquiry report for the nation to move on.
Said Chakwera: “I know that the reading of it took close to five hours, but I am fully persuaded that it was necessary for us as a nation to have a singular moment of coming to terms with the truth, no matter how unpleasant or unpalatable that truth may be.”
The President acknowledged the fact that some sections of society may not easily accept the outcome of the inquiry because the issue at hand is politically sensitive such that others may use the same to their advantage. He also noted that the wounds caused by the June 10 2024 accident in Nthungwa Hill on the Nkhata Bay side of Viphya Highlands have not fully healed.
His appeal may have come about following lingering questions on the commission’s report, but the President stressed that there is need to come to terms with what he called truth.
He said he was yet to read the report because he wanted the public to read it first, a departure from the tradition where such reports are first submitted to the President who has to decide when to share it with the public.
Said Chakwera: “I felt very strongly that out of respect and sensitivity for the trauma and grief that the country as a whole experienced from this tragedy as well as out of respect for the wishes and calls of the bereaved families for the Inquiry to be conducted in a transparent manner, we needed to have a moment as a nation to hear your independent findings and recommendations directly from you before the report was presented to me or circulated among the citizens.”
The President has since directed that a hardcopy of the report be presented to bereaved families by close of business today and that from Monday next week the public should have access to the report which will be translated in different local languages.
When asked on the justification behind the delayed release of the report to the public,
presidential press secretary Anthony Kasunda did not provide an answer as we went to press at 8pm yesterday.
But without specifying a time frame, the President promised that after going through the report he will make decisions “in due course” based on findings and recommendations.
On Wednesday this week, families of the June 10 military plane crash victims asked the Commission of Inquiry to provide them with its report as soon as possible.
Dr. Ben Chilima, who speaks
on behalf of the Chilima family, said although they listened to the commission’s presentation, they need to read the full report thoroughly.
He said: “We want to read it thoroughly and by now, we thought they could have shared the report.”
Chi lima f ur ther said their expectation was that the report would have been presented to the families at least by Tuesday.
In a separate interview, former first lady Patricia Shanil Dzimbiri’s son, Zake Muluzi, said the family would have loved to be presented with the report “immediately after [presentation last Saturday] or at the earliest opportunity”.
Chilima, Shanil Dzimbiri and seven others were on board a Malawi Defence Force Dornier 228 MAFT03 from Lilongwe to Mzuzu Airport when it crashed in Viphya Plantation
Since the crash, there have been calls from civil society organisations, politicians, Chilima’s family and widow, Mary, for the government to institute a Commission of Inquiry to look into the events surrounding the crash.
The President instituted the inquiry in October.
The f indings of the Commission of 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, did not state cause of the plane crash but shared some details of circumstances surrounding the accident which raised questions regarding the aircraft’s fitness to carry passengers
Immediately after the mangled wreck of the ill-fated plane was found, President Chakwera said all people on board “died instantly on impact” and that findings of investigations would be made public.
Malawi Defence Force (MDF) was the first to go on site to investigate the circumstances that caused the accident before German investigators went to the scene and promised to release findings by end of August. However, MDF has not made public its findings with Commander General Velentino Phiri telling The Nation in an earlier interview that their report was submitted to “necessary authorities”.
