Former vice-president Cassim Chilumpha has described his tenure in the Office of the Vice-President under Bingu wa Mutharika as a moment in “hell” that has left a dark mark in his mind.
In an exclusive interview with The Nation last week, he recounted how Bingu tried to force him out of office with “constructive resignation” charge and later treason charges levelled against him, a situation he says should never be experienced by any other person again.
Chilumpha, who served under Bingu from 2004 to 2009, said Bingu never looked at him as a rightful person, especially because he was chosen by the party, United Democratic Front (UDF) and not Bingu himself.
He said the position of VP is viewed with a lot of suspicion, indicating that some people are not really convinced that having a VP is a good idea.
Said Chilumpha: “People are never satisfied with the choice of a person as the Vice-President and they start creating stories afterwards. I didn’t enjoy the position as the Vice-President. I didn’t at all. But fortunately, thank God, I finished it up to the end.
“I did not enjoy the position, I must say. It was hell. In my case, I wasn’t chosen by the principal, but by other people in the UDF, who felt that I was the right person to be Vice-President. But the principal was never happy with my choice. He wished somebody else was Vice-President, not me.”
Bingu. | Nation
Chilumpha, a lawyer, was responding to The Nation enquiry that sought views of former occupants of the office as well as Presidents on their working relationships, especially owing to a growing trend of strained relations between Presidents and Vice-Presidents since 1994.
During the interview, he sent a save our souls (SOS) message for the country to call out all those treating their second-in-command and even in future to change the situation, saying, he is always troubled to see VPs getting ill-treatment just like he did.
He said: “The whole point [stems from the reality that] as the Vice-President you are waiting for the event that something happens to the principal and you compensate yourself. Now, there are people who wouldn’t like you to be the principal in that event.
“As much as the power to delegate rests with the President, it does feel very bad when what appears to be the Vice-President’s role is given to a Cabinet minister. It is wrong and it should be called out very clearly.”
The late SKC, Laz, Kachali spoke about it
In an earlier interview with Nation on Sunday’s Exclusive Inquiry, Khumbo Kachali, who served as vice-president during the two-year tenure of Joyce Banda between 2012 and 2014, said Presidents have all the power while their second-in-command are like figureheads.
Banda left out Kachali as a running mate and opted for the then Industry and Trade minister Sosten Gwengwe.
Kachali described Banda’s move as a vote of no confidence in him.
He said: “That was perhaps the climax of the issues, but sometimes you could see issues from way back. Activities that were supposed to be presided over by the Vice-President could be presided over by a minister.
“So, when that happens, you start adding two plus two and you say okay.”
During the interview, Kachali also said no vice-president in Malawi could say he or she served the country in harmony and peace with the bosses, Presidents.
In September 2018, during the launch of UTM Party in Ntcheu, the then vice-president Saulos Chilima, aka SKC, pledged that if he won the 2019 election he would facilitate the amendment of the Constitution to provide for the functions of a Vice-President.
“I do not want my deputy to go through what I and others before me have gone through,” he said against a background of a fall out with President Peter Mutharika midway through the 2014 to 2019 term.
In May 2020 after presenting his nomination papers for the court-sanctioned Fresh Presidential Election with Chilima as his running mate, former president Lazarus Chakwera said for 26 years the country’s Vice-Presidents have been mistreated, underutilised and slandered. He pledged an end, but he too fell out with Chilima midway.
Said Chakwera: “For 26 years, Malawi’s Vice-Presidents have been mistreated, underutilised and slandered. But God has given us Dr. Chilima, whose courage has confronted this disease and answered the call to cure it on behalf of all Malawians. That is destiny.”
Malawi’s concerning situation
Former vice-president Justin Malewezi resigned in 2003 before the expiry of his term in 2004 due to strained relations with his boss, President Bakili Muluzi. Malewezi, who was the first Vice-President in the country, proceeded on leave and was on the presidential ballot as an independent despite his last minute withdrawal.
Joyce Banda, whom Bingu personally chose as running mate and eventually the country’s vice-president following the pair’s triumph in 2009, was almost denied the chance to rule Malawi in line with constitutional order after Bingu’s death in April 2012 because she had been booted out of the governing Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) alongside Kachali.
Ironically, Banda, upon her ascendency, picked Kachali as Vice-President but the pair also fell out.
Currently, First Vice-President Jane Ansah was stripped of all duties under Disaster Management and Public Service Reforms. President Peter Mutharika has of late been preferring to delegate Cabinet ministers instead of Ansah or Second Vice-President Enoch Chihana with the Office of the President and Cabinet stating that it is costly when the VPs travel on duty.
