DPP dismisses Jeffrey on NGC meeting call
Divisions continue to rock the opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) as senior party officials yesterday descended on the party’s estranged secretary general Grezelder Jeffrey by disowning the national governing council (NGC) meeting she had called.
DPP vice-president for Eastern Region Bright Msaka led the onslaught in Lilongwe, barely days after Jeffrey had on Friday told the media that she had called for an NGC meeting to be held on December 6 2023.
But yesterday, Msaka, himself a DPP presidential aspirant, said the meeting Jeffrey had called was not sanctioned by the party’s president Peter Mutharika and emphasised that it would not take place.
Flanked by director of legal affairs Charles Mhango, organising secretary Chimwemwe Chipungu, Central Region governor David Kambalame and the party spokesperson Shadric Namalomba, Msaka said: “The message from Professor Mutharika is that he is surprised and disappointed to learn that there has been an announcement for the national governing council meeting for the DPP without asking him for his views and without him approving.
“The important message to the members of DPP is that there is no NGC meeting.”
He said Mutharika would call for a central executive committee meeting to discuss a number of issues affecting the party which would then recommend to the party’s president and the secretary general to call for the NGC meeting.
During her media briefing, Jeffrey said her decision to strategise for the party’s convention was in keeping with the September 29 2023 High Court of Malawi judgement that ordered the party to hold the NGC, and convention within 90 days.
She claimed to have consulted Mutharika and invited him to attend the December 6 meeting, but Msaka refuted the claim yesterday indicating that Mutharika received Jeffrey’s letter a day after her press briefing.
Yesterday, she said she could not comment on the matter as she was in a bank.
Msaka,who is a lawyer, also said the party was mindful of the court’s judgement, but the party through its lawyers had appealed the judgement.
Disagreement in the DPP became public in August 2020 when Jeffrey declared that Mutharika had fulfilled his role and called for an early convention to appoint a new leader.
