BRIAN LIGOMEKA, Blantyre | Wednesday
MILLIONAIRE Malawi politician James Makhumula has quit the ruling United Democratic Front (UDF) and launched a scathing attack on corrupt and inefficient former colleagues, including President Bakili Muluzi.
The outspoken parliamentarian, who once served as the UDF’s treasurer general and helped fund its early election campaigns, accused President Muluzi of condoning fraud and corruption within his administration and of sponsoring a violent intimidation campaign against anyone who opposed his allies.
Cabinet ministers and party appointees within the civil service were, he added, guilty of economic mismanagement and were directly responsible for growing unemployment and socio-economic crime in the country of roughly 10 million people.
“I have been a victim of the State-sponsored violence, but refuse to be part and parcel of the dictatorship mismanagement of the UDF government any longer,” Makhumula said.
“This is not what we fought for, and this is not what we agreed to in 1994 when the UDF was elected to power.”
Stressing that he was invoking his Constitutional right to keep his parliamentary seat as an independent representative for the old colonial capital of Zomba, Makhumula confirmed he was speaking to the opposition National Democratic Alliance lobby group.
The NDA, which has yet to declare itself a political party, was established by ousted transport minister Brown Mpinganjira to fight President Muluzi’s possible campaign for a third presidential term.
The charismatic Mpinganjira was considered a contender for Muluzi’s leadership of the UDF until he was ousted late last year for alleged criminal complicity in a US$2m tender scam.
He was, however, acquitted by the country’s High Court due to a lack of evidence, and is focusing on building the NDA into a broad umbrella opposition alliance.
The resignation is expected to further dent the UDF’s tarnished public image, which has already been bruised by a series of widely-publicised judicial and international human rights criticisms of its obligation to free political activity.
Makhumula rose to prominence as a key financier for the UDF during its 1994 election battle against late dictator Dr Hasting Kamuzu Banda’s Malawi Congress Party (MCP). He has since held a series of ministerial seats, before being sidelined as a backbencher representing the influential Zomba constituency. – African Eye News Service