Nankhumwa set to hold own rally 24hrs after APM’s at the same venue in Lilongwe

* Nankhumwa’s poster screams at the bottom: “DPP woyeee! Professor Arthur Peter Mutharika woyeee!”

* A far cry from Nankhumwa, who is at leadership feud with APM that has stretched since 2020

* It all started when APM fired Nankhumwa together with Gelzeder Jeffrey; Jappie Mhango and MP for Mulanje West Yusuf Nthenda

* Who were later instated after the four took the party to court over the decision

By Duncan Mlanjira

In a bizarre twist of events, beleaguered Democratic Progressive Party for the South, Kondwani Nankhumwa has organized a rally at Mgona in Lilongwe’s Area 25 on Sunday, May 1 — which will be 24 hours after his party president, Arthur Peter Mutharika had held his at the same venue.

A poster for APM calls the rally Blue Saturday @ Mgona from 13:30hrs with guest speaker being DPP vice-president for the Centre, Zelia Chakale.

Nankhumwa’s is also at 13:30hrs the following day and will be beamed live on Times TV & Radio as well as on Mzati TV & Radio, whose guest speaker is DPP secretary general, Gelzeder Jeffrey.

There will also be entertainment by performing artists Atoti Manje Annie Matumbi Lawrence Mbejere and Jeremiah.

The poster screams at the bottom: “DPP woyeee! Professor Arthur Peter Mutharika woyeee!” — a far cry from Nankhumwa, who is at leadership feud with APM that has stretched since 2020.

It all started when APM fired Nankhumwa from the party together with Gelzeder Jeffrey; treasurer general, Jappie Mhango and MP for Mulanje West Yusuf Nthenda — who were later instated after the four took the party to court over the decision.

APM fired the four when they disputed his decision to replace the DPP vice-president as Leader of Opposition in Parliament.

In November last year, in what seemed to have been a reconciliatory meeting, it turned out that APM’s and Nankhumwa’s political estrangement was far from over, when Nankhumwa strongly refuted a statement made after the meeting that he had “unconditionally withdrawn the defamation case” he filed through the court against four senior members of the party.

The DPP’s spokesperson, Shadric Namalomba had issued a statement after the reconciliatory meeting which said Nankhumwa “agreed to withdraw all court cases that his camp commenced against the party and other senior officials — who are Francis Mphepo, Brown Mpinganjira, Zellia Chakale and Charles Mchacha.

But Nankhumwa had countered the statement, saying the ‘defamation’ case was against the four, describing it as “personal” and adding that the meeting he and Mutharika had together with five other senior members “agreed that the status quo of all other cases that are before the courts against the party remain unchanged” until Mutharika agreed to hold a closed-door meeting to discuss matters relating to the cases.

During the reconciliatory meeting APM invited Nankhumwa and fellow party presidential aspirants — Paul Gadama; Dalitso Kabambe; David Mbera; Bright Msaka and Joseph Mwanamveka — that led to Namalomba issuing the notice indicating that Nankhumwa had thrown in an olive branch with the DPP.

Namalomba asserted that Nankhumwa agreed to withdraw all court cases against the party and the other four senior officials to which the Leader of Opposition opposed.

The meeting also resolved that all business in Parliament shall be guided by Mutharika through Nankhumwa as Leader of Opposition and that Mutharika shall hold a rally soon together with all the aspirants.

Nankhumwa continued to court controversy within the party when he forced APM to demand a retraction of a political poster on which Nankhumwa used a picture of himself and that of party founder, late Bingu wa Mutharika.

APM reacted by issuing a statement that he felt aggrieved over the use of his late brother’s picture, saying the “purpose of this callous action is to give the impression that the late Bingu would have endorsed this individual’s candidacy”.

APM maintained that as head of the Mutharika family, he had been distressed by this exploitation and asked Nankhumwa to withdraw the poster and to never post another one.

The poster — with a screaming headline ‘Kalikonse Mukaona in 2022’ — quoted Bingu as saying “Power is never given on a silver platter. You must fight for it”.

Soon after APM issued the statement, DPP presidential aspirant David Mbewe and two other MPs, Sameer Suleman and Joyce Chitsulo, posted their own posters with Bingu’s picture.

In January, APM was also forced to voice out his outrage on Nankhumwa when he visited a man identified as Kalani Thom Mutharika — who claimed to be a relation to both Bingu and Peter.

The DPP saw it as Nankhumwa trying to gain political mileage, and in a statement Namalomba said APM disputes and rejects claims that Kalani Thom Mutharika is related to his clan, saying in APM’s family were six children who survived adulthood — Jimmie, Lizzie, Bingu, Ida, Peter (our President) and Christina.

Thus APM, through Namalomba maintained that any person who claims to be a sibling to the Mutharika family — including Kalani Thom — is “a fraud and an impostor,” whilst asking Nankhumwa to “slow down and reflect” as he is taking his “war for presidency too far against innocent people”.

However, Kalani Thom — through his son Pastor Joseph Thom Mutharika maintained the relationship with APM and Bingu and demanded an apology from Namalomba for describing him as an impostor.

But Namalomba said he will not apologize to anyone, saying he stood by his statement and maintained he was ready to face the Kalani Thom family in court.

The visit by Nankhumwa was to show that Kalani Thom was destitute having been ill for some time — an indication that the Mutharika family was neglecting him.

Nankhumwa is reported to have donated various assorted items for Kalani’s upkeep and also pledged to construct him a decent house as he does not own one and lives in his sister’s house at Kachingwe Village in Traditional Authority Mkalo in Chiradzulu.