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| National |
| 3 MCP MPs turn down Bingu’s cabinet posts |
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by
Joseph Langa, 17 June 2006
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05:16:49
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Three MCP MPs have claimed that they turned down an offer from President Bingu wa Mutharika to join his Cabinet alongside Deputy Finance Minister Ted Kalebe and his Agriculture counterpart, Bintony Kutsaira.
MCP Deputy Administrative Secretary Potiphar Chidaya said MPs for Mchinji West, Henry Fwataki, Mchinji South West, George Zulu, and Lilongwe North West, Ishmael Chafukila, refused offers extended to them through Cabinet ministers.
Chidaya, who is also Personal Assistant to MCP President John Tembo, said the three told the party’s caucus prior to the opening of the Budget meeting last week that President Mutharika offered them ministerial portfolios but they rejected them.
“They told us that they were approached by [Energy and Mines Minister Henry] Chimunthu Banda who wanted them to meet Mutharika at the New State House for discussions pertaining to their appointment,” he said. Efforts to talk to Chimunthu Banda proved futile as his phone went unanswered.
Zulu confirmed in a separate interview he was approached by cabinet ministers to meet President Mutharika at the New State House to discuss their appointment but “I refused to meet the President”. He refused to mention the names of the ministers.
“We met at Riverside Hotel in Lilongwe. They said it had pleased the President to include me in the Cabinet,” said Zulu. He said he was not told what Cabinet portfolio the President wanted to give him.
He said he was too loyal to his party and its president to accept a Cabinet position or to accept a meeting with the President without Tembo’s or the party’s approval.
“The only cabinet position I will accept is from Hon Tembo and nothing else. Let those who are joining do so but not me,” said Zulu.
Apart from Kalebe and Kutsaira, Mutharika also appointed UDF’s Thyolo Central MP Bob Khamisa as Minister of Home Affairs and Internal Security, MP for Ntcheu Bwanje South Marjorie Ngaunje as Minister of Health, Karonga Nyungwe MP Richard Msowoya as Deputy Minister for Statutory Corporations and Nkhata Bay Central MP Symon Vuwa Kaunda as Deputy Minister of Lands, Zomba Likangala MP Callista Chimombo Deputy Minister of Local Government and Rural Development.
The two MCP MPs joined Cabinet without their party’s blessings a development which forced the party’s national executive committee (Nec) to declare that by accepting Cabinet jobs, the MPs, alongside Minister of Gender, Child Welfare and Community Services Kate Kainja-Kaluluma, had voluntarily fired themselves from MCP and joined DPP.
But all the three say they are still MCP.
Chidaya said the party was aware that Mutharika was targeting the party’s MPs to join his government in order to allow DPP to penetrate the Central Region, especially in Lilongwe and Mchinji. He claimed they would not succeed in that mission.
Tembo has accused Mutharika of appointing ministers to appease individuals and gain political strength in Parliament at the cost of the rule of law and good governance.
Chafukira refused to comment when contacted on Thursday but Fwataki said he rejected the Cabinet position because he could only accept such an offer on approval from his party and the people from his constituency who elected him.
He said the people who dump their parties to join government just like his MCP counterparts have done do so because they want money which, he said, was not his reason for joining politics.
He said the current government is not a Government of National Unity (GNU) so it is wrong for someone to join it the way his colleagues have done.
“They should know that cabinet positions can also be rejected. I don’t see the reason why I should leave my party at a time when it is growing,” said Fwataki.
Chancellor College political scientist Blessings Chinsinga hailed the three MPs for refusing the Cabinet positions saying that is good for democracy.
He said most MPs who have left their parties to join government have done so because of poverty and to look for business favours since most of them are also in business and believe by joining government they will benefit from government contracts.
Chinsinga said it is “illegal” for government to be enticing MPs from other parties into the DPP by giving them cabinet positions because parties are supposed to compete at an equal footing through a vote and not using government resources.
“What government is doing is illegal because if not checked it will obliterate the opposition,” said Chinsinga.
But Presidential Press Officer Chikumbutso Mtumodzi differed with Chinsinga saying Section 40 of the Constitution gives people a right to make their own political choice.
He refused to comment on reports that the President wanted Zulu, Chafukira and Fwataki in his Cabinet saying he was not aware of any meeting with them.
But Chinsinga said what is happening is bad for democracy because voters are getting a raw deal since the MPs join government without the mandate of the people in their constituency. He said voters are supposed to control the MPs and they (MPs) are supposed to be accountable to them.
He said the only hope for a stable opposition is how the court would interpret Section 65 of the Constitution and feared that more MPs are likely to join government should the court rule in favour of government. He said some MPs are still loyal to their parties for fear of losing their seats after the interpretation of Section 65.
“If the court rules in favour of government, it will be a huge deterrent to democracy because I can foresee an exodus of MPs from opposition to government,” he said.
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