UTM MPs want 2 ministers off VP funeral committee
UTM Party members of Parliament (MPs) and councillors have asked President Lazarus Chakwera to remove two Cabinet ministers from the ministerial committee coordinating Vice-President Saulos Chilima’s State funeral for allegedly delaying search and rescue efforts.
The two are Minister of Defence Harry Mkandawire and Minister of Homeland Security Ken Zikhale Ng’oma.
During a press briefing in Lilongwe yesterday, the UTM legislators and councillors, led by Blantyre City West MP Steve Mikaya, wondered why government did not move with speed to respond after the plane was reported missing in the morning.
Said Mikaya: “The two ministers were supposed to be on top of things, but failed to do so. If the government had put in more effort into the search for the plane, maybe things would have been different.”
He said UTM Party has lost confidence in the duo and do not want them involved in the organisation of the funeral.
Taking his turn, Zomba Changalume legislator Bizwick Million reiterated that UTM Party members felt that if the search started the moment the plane went missing, some of the plane crash victims would have been found alive.
But Minister of Information and Digitisation Moses Kunkuyu, a member of the committee, said the UTM Party is involved in all the funeral arrangements and government will continue to work with them.
He said UTM Party-affiliated Cabinet ministers are also part of the committee.
On Tuesday, government announced an 11-member Ministerial Committee on the State Funeral chaired by Minister of Justice Titus Mvalo.
Besides Ng’oma, Mkandawire and Kunkuyu, other members of Defence, Harry Mkandawire; are ministers of Natural Resources and Climate Change, Michael Usi; Finance and Economic Affairs Simplex Chithyola Banda; Foreign Affairs Nancy Tembo; Health, Khumbize Chiponda; Local Government, Unity and Culture Richard Chimwendo Banda; Tourism, Vera Kamtukule; and Transport and Public Works, Jacob Hara.
