By Andrew Magombo
Lilongwe, March 14, Mana: Veteran music artist-cum-preacher, Mlaka Maliro has broken silence over his resignation as a Pastor of Enlighten Christian Gathering (ECG) which was founded by embattled Prophet, Shepherd Bushiri.
In an interview with a local radio station on Monday, he cited family reasons as the motive behind his unprecedented return from Eswatini where was deployed for the last five years.
Maliro said: “I have been on the move on gospel missions in different countries hence affecting academic studies of my children as they have to transfer schools, adapt to syllabus and learn different foreign languages regularly.”
“We have secured them boarding schools and I happy to reunite with my family because I was feeling a void in fulfilling by duties at the expense of my wife and kids back in Malawi which was not easy,”
When asked to clarify on his exit from the ECG, the Dzanja La lemba star said initially his wife resigned from the church six months ago and he is following suit for the sake of his family.
He said “When my wife left the church, it was hard because that turned us into family with different beliefs for we could no longer do some things together so I duly submitted my resignation letter. ”
When contacted by Malawi News Agency (Mana) to comment on the resignations, ECG’s Spokesperson, Ephraim Nyondo refused to comment on the matter as he demanded to be furnished with the letters first.
During the radio interview, Maliro shed light on his latest single The Wine is Over (Vinyo Watha) which has dominated airwaves and social media platforms in the course opening multifaceted interpretations.
Maliro, who emerged from Lucius Banda’s Zembani Band in the 90s, said the song is addressing various sociopolitical issues including religion and leadership.
He said: “Nowadays multitudes are blindly following churches because of miracles and they are falling prey without being aware that they are being led by fake preachers with no spiritual substance.”
“In the song, I am also talking about leaders who are arrogant and refute constructive criticism when the wine is over as things are not going in the right direction.”
On Saturday the former ECG Pastor riled more debate with his cryptic post on Facebook as some suggested a fall out between him and Bushiri while others sympathized with him.
He wrote: “After all has been said and done, Mlaka is a pastor and will remain a pastor serving one true God of Heaven,I’ve just stepped down from one organization ‘CHURCH’, ”