I can’t be distracted—SPC Zamba

S

ecretary to the President and Cabinet (SPC) Colleen Zamba says she will not be distracted by actions of some Malawi Congress Party (MCP) women who attacked her during a public event in Lilongwe last Friday.

The country’s top civil servant was reacting to a video clip that has gone viral showing some women in MCP colours taunting her after attending a Malawi Assemblies of God Leadership Conference at Bingu International Conference Centre (Bicc) in Lilongwe where President Lazarus Chakwera was also in attendance.

In a telephone interview yesterday, Zamba said she was surprised after seeing the video clip as she did not address the women on the purported issue of barring party cadres from State functions.

She said: “Even if I had said that, I think there should still be respect because it’s an [SPC] office. So, we wouldn’t entertain that people should not respect the authority and be unruly.  

“I really don’t entertain those kinds of things and they cannot threaten me at all. I am focused and I don’t get distracted by such things.”

Zamba, who was recently seen in a video clip dancing with party women at an anti-corruption meeting in Blantyre, said following the video clip, she has instituted an inquiry to establish what really happened as she did not give any directive or order that MCP members should stop attending State functions as it being reported on the social media.

In a separate interview, MCP secretary general Eisenhower Mkaka yesterday distanced the MCP women from accusations that they attacked Zamba in the viral video clip, saying they did not mention names.

“The song could be making references to anybody else without necessarily attacking the SPC,” he said.

Part of the lyrics of the song which MCP women were singing include: “watukwana chipani iweyo, kumeneko nkulakwa. Kubwera mawa choti ufuna chipani. [You have insulted the party, that is wrong. You will need the party one day].”

Commenting on the matter, Salima-based political analyst George Phiri described MCP women’s actions as a disgrace, especially, considering that the President was in attendance.

“It is very disgracing that a senior government official like Ms Zamba had to run away from these women. I expected the President to speak against such behaviour because that lady is a senior government official and deserve some respect,” he said.

Ironically, during the election campaign, Chakwera promised he would do things differently by, among other things, separating State functions from political party events.

From the one-party era of founding president Hastings Kamuzu Banda to the multi-party dispensation since 1994, political parties in power have tended to mix State with partisan events.