Khato Civils executive chairman Simbi Phiri denies involvement in alleged new political party

Simbi Ashan Phiri

* His full name is Simbi Ashan Phiri and not Peter Simbi Phiri

* Khato Civils and its chairman refute and deny all the allegations as malicious and aimed at impugning Simbi Phiri’s image

* We have engaged our legal counsel to decisively deal with this fraudulent attempt of using our chairman’s picture

By Duncan Mlanjira

Khato Civils executive chairman Simbi Phiri, who has for a long time declared he was not interested in joining politics, has distanced himself from being involved in a reported new political party named Congress for Democrats.

In a statement, the renowned and successful Malawian engineering entrepreneur based in South Africa, says a document is in circulation on various social media platforms in Malawi purporting that Peter Simbi Phiri is holding position of president complete with his picture.

But the executive chairman says his full name is Simbi Ashan Phiri and not Peter Simbi Phiri and was forced to clear the mist since a picture of him accompanies the new party announcement.

It was also noted that a Facebook page was created called Peter Simbi Phiri with a picture of Simbi Ashan Phiri and has over 5,500 likes, saying this was fraudulently created and is misleading the public into believing that Simbi Ashan Phiri is the same as Peter Simbi Phiri.

“We wish to categorically state and place on record that there’s no connection, directly or indirectly, between Exexutive Chairman, Mr. Simbi Ashan Phiri, and the alleged Peter Simbi Phiri,” says the statement.

“We have engaged our legal counsel to decisively deal with this fraudulent attempt of using our chairman’s picture to sinisterly generate page attraction and likes to the page and subsequently mislead the public into believing that Peter Simbi Phiri and Executive Chairman Mr. Simbi Ashan Phiri are the same persons.

“Khato Civils and its chairman refute and deny all the allegations as malicious and aimed at impugning the Khato Civils Executive Chairman”.

In this regard, Khato Civils urges the public to disregard the publication and content shared by the pseudo-Facebook account as it has no connection whatsoever to Simbi Ashan Phiri.

Khato Civils thus says they find these insinuations misleading and slanderous and maintains that there’s no connection whatsoever between the alleged Peter Simbi Phiri of the Congress for Democrats and Simbi Ashan Phiri.

The alleged interim leadership of the Congress for Democrats (CoD) has Peter Simbi Phiri as president; Chimunthu Banda as 1st vice-president; Richard Msowoya (2nd vice-president); Noel Masangwi (secretary general); Dr. Chris Daza (deputy secretary general); Bishop Abraham Simama (treasurer general) and Jappie Mtuwa Mhango as deputy treasurer general.

Other notable faces of recycled politicians named as leadership include Salim Bagus; Bright Msaka; Calista Chimombo; George Saonda; Louis Ngalande; Frank Tumpale Mwenefumbo; Ken Msonda; Bon Kalindo; Rashid Gaffer; Moses Kunkuyu; Cecilia Chadzama; Ralph Jooma, Hophmally Makande; Humphrey Mvula and many others.

Khato Civils says this is not the first time such people have published material aimed at damaging Simbi Ashan Phiri’s image and declared that they “will vigorously pursue the people behind these malicious publications and they will be found and taken to court and their identity and faces will be exposed.

“As he has categorically stayed during several interviews in Malawi, Mr Simbi Ashan Phiri harbors no political ambitions. He believes his contribution to his country is better placed in investment and development through his businesses and mentoring young people to enter the business space and become successful future business leaders.”

Last month, Simbi Phiri encouraged Malawian graduates to aim for entrepreneurship as opposed to focusing on being employed as is the case for most of all youths as they pursue their higher education.

In an interview on Cruise 5 — a one-on-one panel discussion programme on Zodiak Broadcasting Station — Simbi Phiri observed that the majority of Malawians get obsessed on securing employment upon their graduation instead of aiming for entrepreneurship.

He indicated that if deliberate steps are taken to strengthen and stimulate entrepreneurship can help create job opportunities.

Simbi hinted that entrepreneurship is what the financial authorities can consider supporting to encourage more highly educated experts to venture and grow their entrepreneur businesses so that can sustain on their own into bigger industries so that they keep the country’s economy stable.

Simbi believes that most Malawians have the wrong mentality and perception that entrepreneurship is an option for those who failed to attain higher education.

Yet they fail to see the bigger picture based on how and why Malawians of Asian origin do their businesses, which is mostly family controlled. The Indians’ businesses, Simbi said, are controlling the economy, which is second to the corporate world.

“Indians educate their children and once they graduate, they run their family businesses [applying what they learnt during their education],” Simbi said, hinting that Malawian small and medium entrepreneurs, who didn’t undergo higher education, cannot be expected to compete at par with the Malawians of Asian origin.