Word on the street

Honeymoon is over for Chimulirenji

In June this year, Vice-President Everton Chimulirenji worshiped at Living Word Evangelistic Church (Liwec) at Shalom Mount Valley in Machinga. Shalom Mount Valley belongs to controversial Prophet David Mbewe.

After worship and presiding over the presentation of certificates to 204 members of the church, Chimulirenji donated K1 million to the ministry. ‘The K1 million handout from his pocket’ was the first in a series of donations that the ‘quite politician’ has made since he took over Office of the Vice-President on May 27.

Those who know Chimulirenji tell a different story from the generous old man that he has become lately. Just a few months after assuming power, he is dishing out cash like Father Christmas. On Saturday, with his usual trademark sly smile, Chimulirenji promised to sponsor Inkosi Gomani’s honeymoon in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Inkosi Gomani V married his 23-year-old South African wife Rishaladzi.

The media has been awash with condemnation of the Veep’s pledge. One of the key questions being raised is who will pay for the Dubai trip? Is Chimulirenji going to pay from his pockets as he has done with a few million bucks he has splashed in the past six months?

We on the streets will not be hoodwinked with nonsense that Chimulirenji will use his personal cash to sponsor Inkosi Gomani. The veep knows as we all do, that he is wasting taxpayers’ money to gain favours with the young chief. But for whose benefit?

If truth is to be said, Chimulirenji and his band of democratic progressives are nothing but a band of thieves. They steal at every opportunity and splash cash on petty projects such as building a small church in the middle of nowhere to donating cash to a scandalous chief. They do all this while central hospitals, such as Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital (Qech) can hardly afford an oxygen kit and our children still learn under the tree.

The pledge to fund Inkosi Gomani’s luxury trip to Dubai is just a tip of the iceberg of mediocrity in the Veep’s office. Where is this oldman, who had very little to show for before May 21 elections getting the money and why does he think a honeymoon of all problems that we have as country warrants his generous donation?

The honeymoon is over for Chimulirenji. Malawians have been taking his mediocrity for too long and now he has gone too far in testing our resolve. He must really come to terms with the sad reality that Malawians are watching and don’t like him as their vice-president.

Perhaps he is shaking the tree to see what Malawians reaction will be? Or he is a victim of a rotting system that has no checks and balances.

Of course, examples abound of how executive extravagance has led to sad and dire consequences. We all remember how as Minister of Education, Yusuf Mwawa had a lavish wedding at the Sunbird Mount Soche Hotel at the expense of the ministry. We all know how the jailer beckoned him.

Time and again, we have seen Cabinet ministers and other top politicians living extravagant lives and it needs no rocket science to know that they are just fishing out from the government coffers. We have seen their mighty falls. But does he have to be so naïve to tow fall like them?

Well, from the time he was hand-picked from oblivion, Chimulirenji has presented himself as a down-to-earth Veep. If we swallow his bait hook, line and sinker, it will be too late when we realise we were hoodwinked.

For us, on the streets, the honeymoon for Chimulirenji is over with this honeymoon pledge. He is showing us who is he is; a typical DPP cadet.

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