MCP backs ministers on cash handouts
Malawi Congress Party (MCP) says it has no problem with some convention candidates, including Cabinet ministers splashing cash to woo votes as long as it is their personal “hard-earned funds”.
However, the position expounded by MCP spokesperson Ezekiel Ching’oma contradicts the sentiments President Lazarus Chakwera made in his June 2020 inauguration speech that “time for handouts is over”.
The response comes after Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs Simplex Chithyola Banda handed out K500 000 to each of the 105 delegates he met in Lilongwe on July 5 2024. The money totalled K52 million and is in addition to the K30 million he spent in Mzuzu at another meeting.
The minister is vying for the position of MCP secretary general at the party’s upcoming national convention slated for August.
His Cabinet colleague Ken Zikhale Ng’oma of Homeland Security also disbursed about K45 million to delegates in Mzuzu last week.
But in a written response on Monday, Ching’oma said: “First, if the money being handed out comes from someone’s hard-earned funds.
“Second, if the delegates have travelled from distant locations, where the money serves as reimbursement for transportation, food, and in some cases, accommodation.”
He said handouts are a long-standing tradition in the party during campaign ahead of a convention where candidates are expected to bear the cost of hosting delegates.
Said Ching’oma: “Consider delegates travelling from Likoma Island and other remote areas to attend a political meeting in Mzuzu. In such instances, it is only humane to cover their transportation costs.
Chithyola Banda has not responded to our questionnaire and calls for the past three days, but in separate interviews, the delegates corroborated that they received K500 000 each in Lilongwe.
In an interview, one of the delegates from Lakeshore Region covering Salima and Nkhotakota, Esther Kaunda, said the minister said the money was personal and proceeds from his successful agricultural business and was meant for transport refunds and food.
But Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace national coordinator Boniface Chibwana said money-driven politics sends the wrong message that candidates want positions for personal benefit rather than common good.
“Handouts promote corruption as politicians work to outdo each other in a race where money talks louder than ideas,” he said.
Registrar of political parties Kizito Tenthani on Monday said there is nothing they can do to control the malpractice as this was outside the structure of the law which focuses on presidential, parliamentary and local government elections.
“But from ethics and integrity angle, the optics do not look good both for the individual minister and government,” he said.
Lilongwe-based political analyst Chikondi Chidzanja said splashing such obnoxious opulence is insensitive to the plight of many Malawians.
In a separate interview, economist Dalitso Kubalasa said the recent activities of the Minister of Finance in distributing substantial sums of money during political campaigns could easily raise critical concerns, more so regarding the ethical standards expected of public officials, just to mention a few.
In separate interactions with the 153 potential convention delegates at Nyachenda Motel hall in Mzuzu last Wednesday, Chithyola Banda gave the delegates K200 000 each, translating to K30.6 million before Zikhale Ng’oma disbursed K45.9 million or K300 000 each.
Meanwhile, private practice lawyer Khwima Mchizi has said while the law regulates national elections, it would be naïve to ignore in-house party elections.
Taxpayers spend around K6.9 million monthly on each Cabinet minister in salaries and benefits and K6.6 million on the deputies who double as members of Parliament.
Cabinet ministers’ monthly entitlement include a basic salary of K1 856 000 and K1 542 800 for the deputies, house rental allowance of K1.2 million, K500 000 hospitality allowance as well as K100 000 airtime allowance for full ministers and K80 000 for juniors.
Efforts to source the two ministers’ declared assets at the time of assuming office proved futile as the Directorate of Public Officers Declaration of Assets and Liabilities on Thursday said it was still compiling submissions.
