Differences between Vice-President Michael Usi and UTM Party leadership have taken a new turn with the former party leader snubbing summons to appear before a disciplinary committee purportedly because the new team is illegal.
In his address to scores of his followers at Mudi State Resistance in Blantyre yesterday, he said appearing before the UTM disciplinary committee would be a waste of time and resources.
Said Usi: “In as far as I am concerned, they [UTM leadership] don’t exist because they are not legitimate.
“They did not follow the [UTM] constitution. So, to appear before them it’s like I am telling the nation that I am recognising them as leaders of UTM.”
In a letter summoning Usi to the hearing, UTM Party director of legal affairs Charles Dokera Thole said the country’s Vice-President faced charges of behaving in a manner likely to provoke or has the potential to provoke divisions or impact negatively on the unity in UTM Party.
During yesterday’s briefing, Usi also asked UTM leadership to disclose publicly condolence money collected in the wake of former vice-president Saulos Chilima’s death in a military plane crash on June 10 2014 alongside eight others. He said the party leadership should detail how the money was used.
He claimed that during Chilima’s funeral, most UTM supporters lacked food and transportation.
Ironically, Usi was party president at the time of the funeral service.
Meanwhile, a Commission of Inquiry Report into the Plane Crash indicated that UTM Party and other parties in the Tonse Alliance as well as United Democratic Front received funding from Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs for various activities during the State funeral.
Usi, who was accompanied by Umodzi Party president Thomas Kaumba, claimed that there are more political parties willing to work with him, but could not disclose the details of the said parties. He also did not indicate under which platform the other parties would want to work with him after a UTM Party national delegates conference in Mzuzu ushered in a new team led by former Reserve Bank of Malawi governor Dalitso Kabambe.
But reacting to Usi’s position, UTM Party national spokesperson Felix Njawala said it was clear that Usi was bent at creating confusion.
He said it was shocking that Usi maintains his stand of not recognising the party leadership when he chaired all the party meetings ahead of the UTM convention.
Said Njawala: “But the party will find the way forward on Dr. Usi. On the K61 million which the party received for condolences, he [Usi] is supposed to present the report because that time he was our president.
“So, as our president that time, he was leading in everything, including finances.”
However, in a follow-up interview, Usi laughed off Njawala’s sentiments that he is the one to present a report on the funds, arguing that the UTM constitution give power to the treasurer general to handle finances.
Said Usi: “It is strange that they are saying I should present the said report. Was I the party’s treasurer general?”
Commenting on the UTM Party squabbles, political analyst Sainala Kalebe, who teaches political science at Catholic University of Malawi, said what is happening between the party and Usi is an indication of lack of intra-party dialogue.
Usi shunned the UTM Party presidential race by not submitting his nomination papers, citing gross violation of the party’s constitution by the national executive committee.
In an earlier interview, private practice lawyer Christon Ghambi said Usi lost the plot when he failed to contest during the convection, as such, cannot challenge the legitimacy of the leadership because he was not a participant in the election.
Gift Sambo, a legislative, electoral politics and public policy expert from the University of Malawi, also argued in The Nation last week that Usi was creating unnecessary confusion.
President Lazarus Chakwera appointed him as Vice-President on June 20 2024 following the death of Chilima.
In the 2019 Presidential Election, Chilima picked Usi as his running mate. At the time, Usi had a movement Wodya Zake Alibe Mlandu, but was working with the UTM Party.
