Former Reserve Bank of Malawi governor Dalitso Kabambe has angered some UTM Party top brass with his letter asking party president Michael Usi to push for a commission of inquiry into the June 10 2024 plane crash.
In a letter dated October 2 2024, Kabambe wants Usi, in his capacity as the country’s Vice-President, to engage President Lazarus Chakwera to expedite the process of instituting a commission of inquiry into events surrounding the plane crash that claimed the life of UTM Party founding president and the country’s Vice-President Saulos Chilima and eight others in Nthungwa on the Nkhata Bay side of Viphya Plantation.
But UTM Party secretary general Patricia Kaliati, in an interview yesterday, said the party was not amused with Kabambe’s letter on the inquiry.
She said Kabambe, who joined the party from Democratic Progressive Party where he initially aspired for the presidency, needed to understand that UTM Party already wrote President Chakwera on the matter because it is his office that can institute a commission of inquiry and not that of the Vice-President.
“Maybe some people have not bought the knowledge that the President of this country is Lazarus Chakwera. As a party, we communicated directly to the President about this matter,” said Kaliati.
She described Kabambe’s letter to Usi as a ‘friendly letter’ between the two UTM Party presidential hopefuls.
Office of the Vice-President director of communications Pilirani Phiri yesterday confirmed that the office received Kabambe’s letter.
“The letter was indeed delivered to the Office of the Vice- President. It will be taken to the attention of His Honour, the Vice- President,” he said.
In his letter The Nation has seen, Kabambe said: “I believe it is your duty [as the country’s Vice-President] to ensure that this inquiry takes place, as it is in the best interest of our entire nation, especially as you assume the role and responsibilities as the direct successor of the late Dr. Saulos Klaus Chilima.”
Under Section 89(1)(g) of the Constitution and Section 2(1) of the Commissions of Inquiry Act, the President is mandated to appoint commissions of inquiry into matters of public interest.
Commenting on the issue, political analyst Ernest Thindwa said there seems to be lack of clarity on why Kabambe decided to write Usi on the matter.
He said: “The propensity to exploit the death of Vice- President Saulos Chilima has been evident among individual and institutional political actors since the demise of SKC.
“The fact that both Kabambe and Usi are in the UTM Party and lack of clarity on the capacity in which the former is writing to the Vice-President to demand a commission of inquiry does not help Kabambe’s cause.”
Another political pundit Chimwemwe Tsitsi said the fact that the letter was leaked connotes that someone between the two UTM Party presidential aspirants wants to gain political mileage.
“We cannot be very wrong to say Kabambe had wanted to gain some mileage out of this call by putting pressure on Usi as the current UTM leader,” he said.
Efforts to speak to Kabambe and Usi for comment proved futile as we went to press at 8pm yesterday.
Calls for the commission of inquiry into the plane crash are not new as some members of the bereaved families and some civil society organisations have also called for the same.
On Sunday, Chilima’s widow, Mary, called on people of goodwill to support bereaved families in pushing for a commission of inquiry into the June 10 military plane crash that killed Chilima and eight others.
In a Facebook post reflecting on their wedding anniversary on September 29 2024 and accompanied by her picture sitting by the rubble of the plane at the crash site, she said all she needed was to know the truth about what claimed the life of her dear husband and eight others.
In an interview on Sunday in reaction to Mary Chilima’s appeal, Malawi Law Society (MLS) president Patrick Mpaka said the calls were justified and that it is high time government acted on the issue.
Making reference to an MLS statement released on June 13 2024, he said authorities needed to act with speed as people still have questions on the matter.
Minister of Information and Digitisation Moses Kunkuyu is on record as having said that while the inquiry was ideal, it requires that all other reports are made available so that it addresses the gaps.
The Malawi Human Rights Commission is also on record as having said that it was engaging stakeholders to institute a commission of inquiry into the military plane crash.
Preliminary findings from a report of German investigators into the accident show that the Malawi Defence Force (MDF) plane had no cockpit voice recorder or a flight data recorder.
