Families of Vice-President Saulos Chilima and eight others killed in the June 10 military plane crash have asked the Commission of Inquiry to provide them with its report as soon as possible.
The commission, chaired by High Court of Malawi Judge Jabbar Alide, read out its report last Saturday evening.
The findings ruled out foul play and attributed the accident to bad weather and other human factors.
crash: Dzimbiri | Nation
Further, the commission indicated that the report would be made public after formal presentation to President Lazarus Chakwera.
But in an interview yesterday, Dr. Ben Chilima, who speaks on behalf of the Chilima family, said although they listened to the presentation, they need to read the full report thoroughly to understand it.
He said: “We have several points as a family that we are not happy with, but we cannot comment as of now because the report has not been shared.
“We want to read it thoroughly and by now, we thought they could have shared the report.”
Chilima further said their expectation was that the report would have been presented to the families at least by Tuesday or yesterday.
In a separate interview, former first lady Patricia Dzimbiri’s son, Zake Muluzi, said the family would have loved to be presented with the report “immediately after [presentation last Saturday] or at the earliest opportunity”.
The family of Chilima’s bodyguard Chisomo Chimaneni also said they have not been furnished with the report.
Chimaneni’s uncle, Gladson Chipumphula, said: “We are failing to come up with a proper response because we haven’t been given the report yet, but we hope that they will give us soon.”
Secretary for the Commission of Inquiry, Chizaso Nyirongo, did not respond to both calls and WhatsApp message by press time at 8pm yesterday while presidential press secretary Anthony Kasunda said the President was yet to be presented with the report.
Prior to the reading of the report, Alide is on record as having said that “once the report is formally published and presented to the President, copies of the report shall be made available to the public accordingly”.
The Nation yesterday sought to find out timeframes on when the report will be formally published, presented to the President and made public.
Chilima, Shanil Dzimbiri, Chimaneni and six others were on board a Malawi Defence Force Dornier 228 MAFT03 from Lilongwe to Mzuzu Airport when it crashed in Viphya Plantation on June 10 this year.
The others were Chilima’s guard commander Lukas Kapheni, medical officer Dan Kanyemba, Ministry of Foreign Affairs deputy chief of protocol Abdul Lapukeni, Colonel Owen Sambalopa who was the pilot-in-command, Major Flora Selemani who was the second pilot and aircraft engineer Major Wales Aidin
