Former First Lady, Calista Chapola
Mutharika, came out of her cocoon
and took a swipe on President Joyce
Banda, blaming her for ‘grossly’ failing
to rule the country and putting
Malawians in deep misery beyond reach. She was guest of honour at Pastors
Voices Fraternal conference at
Assemblies of God Church in Chemusa,
Blantyre on Saturday when she
attacked Banda for rushing into
devaluing the country’s currency by 49 percent without considering its
effects, arguing her late husband and
former President Bingu wa Mutharika
has now been vindicated on his
economic stance against devaluation. Late Mutharika was reluctant to
devalue the currency on
recommendations from IMF as well as
international and local economists,
demanding to be given money first to
cushion its effects. But Banda, upon ascendency to
power in April, 2012 following a
sudden death of Mutharika due to
cardiac arrest, devalued the currency
and floated it as part of IMF policies for
the country to access the much touted aid, which is erratically trickling in.
“When Bingu stood against
devaluation, many people thought he
was mad. He tried to plead with chiefs
and others just to understand how it
will hurt us. His interest was to protect
the poor people. Zoona chisime chimadziwika ndi chakuya chikauma
(you know the depth of a pit when it’s
dry), now Malawians are regretting for
not taking up his advice. We are now
feeling the pinch,” the former first lady
said. Mrs. Mutharika also dismissed the
President’s public proclamation that
there is hunger in the country, arguing
“There is no hunger in Malawi. How
could one say there is hunger when
there are no maize imports and she is sourcing her maize locally? There is
maize on the local market, a sign that
we have food in the country.” She added: “The only problem is on
logistics; it seems the authorities are
unable to ferry the grain from one
point to another, and people currently
don’t have money to buy. It is first
thing in Malawi to see a 50kg bag of maize selling at K7, 500. It has never
happened before”. Callista Mutharika, who once worked
with Banda at Hunger Project NGO
before joining politics, repeated her
last year’s comic sentiment against
Banda that Mai wa mandasi
sangalamule dziko (aamere market woman selling fritters cannot rule the
country.} “When I said a mandasi [fritter] seller
people thought it was just an insult or
shabby talk, but, I have known her
from way back. Just because she once
ran an NGO, it doesn’t mean she is
capable to run a country. “Subsidy program has been messed
up just nine months in power, what
more if they are here for years? They
are giving people sand mixed fertilizer
and fake coupons, something that
never happened under late Bingu’s administrations. There is no discipline
to manage the program”. However, government has refused to
comment on her outburst. Minister of Information and Civic
Education also government
spokesperson, Moses Kunkuyu when
contacted just said: “As government
we cannot comment on what the
former First Lady said. All I know is that President Joyce Banda is doing
her best”. During the conference, which was
attended by almost 400 pastors from
Southern Region, Calista gave out
K220, 000 to pastors’ wives to start up
a revolving fund for small-scale
businesses, comically warning “Don’t start mandasi businesses, there is no
any profit with the Kwacha
devaluation”. She then urged the men of God to take
part in fighting for the welfare of the
people and never be afraid to criticize
politicians and those in authority
when things go wrong. One of the main preachers at the
event, Pastor Joshua Jere, called upon
the church to participate in politics,
arguing it is normal for religious
people joining politics. “We have a role to play as religious
models. Take a look at devaluation,
floatation of Kwacha, rising cost of
living and corruption; and what is the
church doing, almost nothing. But
these problems have not spared us. So it’s it our role to safeguard the interest
of people we serve and ensure our
politicians are putting the will of
people first,” Jere said in his sermon.