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President Bingu wa Mutharika met 26 independent Members of Parliament (MPs) at Zomba State House on Tuesday and asked them to join a party called the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) which he intends to launch next week.
Two independents who attended the meeting which run between 11AM and 2PM said they were given K10,000 ( about $92) each, wined and dined.
The two, who did not want to be named for fear of being excluded from the next meeting slated for next week, said Mutharika told them that he is ready to work with them and provide loans to boost their constituencies.
The MPs also said they were invited to meet the President through Mutharika’s political advisor Francis Mphepo.
“The President told us that he is setting up a bank called the Malawi Development Investment Bank where we will be getting soft loans,” said one of the two MPs.
The legislators also said Mutharika told them that his party will be a “proper, procedural party which is different from what is there now”.
The two also reported their meeting with the President to UDF gurus that included party secretary general Kennedy Makwangwala . It added that another group of the independents were going to report the meeting to UDF chair Bakili Muluzi.
The two MPs said some of their colleagues who spoke during the meeting included Olive Masanza, Gift Mwamondwe and Steven Nthenda.
Mwamondwe is reported to have queried the President on why he did not include any MP from Blantyre Urban in the Cabinet.
Mutharika reportedly said he included three independent MPs and that if he had powers, he would have included most of them in parastatal boards.
Nthenda and Masanza are reported to have asked the President to clarify on how the independents should work with him.
Asked if she attended the meeting and spoke, Masanza confirmed to have asked the President for clarification on his relationship with them.
“I wanted to know how we should work with government. I see nothing wrong in working with the government of the day as a retired civil servant. As independents we don’t have a party to lean on so there’s nothing wrong with working with the President,” said Masanza.
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