President Lazarus Chakwera is set to appoint three former ruling Democratic Progress Party (DPP) gurus in his anticipated new cabinet which he will dub ‘cabinet of national unity’, we can reveal.
Our credible information indicates that the inclusion of the three namely Chimwemwe Chipungu, Bright Msaka and Joseph Mwanamvekha will effectively lead to a longer term ‘electoral relationship’ between Chakwera’s Malawi Congress Party (MCP) and the DPP.
The broker of the deal is Chakwera’s powerful Chief of Staff Prince Kapondamgaga who arranged a meeting in December 2020 between Chakwera and DPP leader and former President Peter Mutharika in Mangochi where the negotiations for a working relationship between the two parties started.
We can also reveal that Chakwera and Mutharika are set to meet on Tuesday in Lilongwe privately taking advantage of the Covid-19 low capacity activities at Kamuzu Palace.
Our information which has been independently verified by people from both camps indicates that Chakwera and Mutharika agreed on the working pact during the famous Chakwera visit to Mutharika’s retirement home in Mangochi in December 2020.
Among the issues that the two leaders agreed and will finalize during the Tuesday meeting in Lilongwe include the fielding of Former Reserve Bank of Malawi (RBM) Governor Dalitso Kabambe as runningmate to Chakwera in 2025 elections. Kabambe recently joined the DPP and is being touted as Mutharika’s favourite to succeed him as DPP leader.
Mutharika is said to have pleaded with Chakwera to unfreeze his bank accounts and not charge him with any crime on the K5 billion cement duty scandal.
The two leaders also agreed that some of DPP sympathizers should remain in their positions in government and that those who have been recently arrested on various graft charges should have either their cases delayed or frustrated until they are thrown out by the courts.
True to the agreement, government has renewed contracts of well-known DPP cadets namely Zacchaeus Meke as Postmaster General at Malawi Posts Corporation (MPC), Rhoda Misomali as Chief Executive Officer of Airport Developments Limited (ADL), Symon Mandala as Director General of Malawi Bureau of Standards (MBS) and Hellen Buluma who will soon be promoted to Chief Executive Officer at National Oil Company of Malawi (Nocma).
We can also reveal that the ‘steering committee’ of the alliance agreement consist of Kapondamgaga on the MCP side and Brown Mpinganjira and Joseph Mwanamvekha on the DPP side. The committee is expected to meet this weekend in Lilongwe in preparation for the Chakwera-Mutharika meeting on Tuesday next week.