DPP unveils new South governor, backs APM
Former governing Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Southern Region Committee yesterday elected its new regional governor and endorsed the candidacy of party’s president Peter Mutharika during the 2025 Tripartite Elections.
This follows another endorsement of Mutharika by DPP Northern Region Committee on April 5 2023 and subsequent endorsements by regional committees in the Central and Eastern regions.
The Southern Region bloc meeting held at Grace Bandawe Conference Centre in Blantyre, whose main objective was to unveil the newly-appointed regional governor for the region Thomson Kamangila who has replaced Charles Mchacha, was attended by the party’s district governors and youth leaders from all the districts in the South.
DPP director of youth in the South Yona Mlotha told the meeting attended by members of the party’s national governing council (NGC) that the region has settled for Mutharika.
He said: “It is only professor Mutharika who can help us get back in power. We need to unite and work hard. Let us support our new regional governor and we must avoid backbiting to achieve our goals. The Southern Region is the powerhouse of the party.
“No one in the party should serve two regional governors. We only have one regional governor, that is Kamangila. Any change of leaders in positions comes for a reason. We want to get back in government. It is painful to be in opposition.”
DPP director of Women in the South Bertha Nachuma also supported Mutharika’s candidacy in 2025, saying women in the region were ready and committed to work hard to help the DPP bounce back in government.
She said they will support the new regional governor to reclaim power, appealing to the party’s leadership to also give the women the support.
Mulanje South West legislator George Chaponda, a member of the party’s NGC, said DPP’s reliable presidential candidate is Mutharika because he is highly educated and experienced.
“We can only get back in government if we have professor Mutharika. We want professor Mutharika to lead us and transform this country again. The South is ready for professor,” he said.
In his acceptance speech, the newly-appointed regional governor, Kamangila called on all DPP members to unite, work hard and support him to win the 2025 Tripartite Elections.
“I thank the party president professor Mutharika for honouring someone like me from Nsanje with this appointment. We have to get on the ground and do the job. I will go everywhere in the region to do the job and deliver. Our ultimate goal is to get back in government and we will do that,” said Kamangila, a one-time member of Parliament for Nsanje South.
In an interview, Mangochi South West legislator Shadreck Namalomba said the appointment of Kamangila is strategic, explaining that previously senior position in the party were given to people from obvious districts in the South.
He said Mchacha has not been fired, but assigned to new duties.
But some 17 DPP parliamentarians on April 13 faulted the endorsements of Mutharika as unconstitutional.
