Lilongwe – The party of Malawi’s former vice-president Saulos Chilima on Friday announced it was leaving the government alliance and reiterated its demand that authorities investigate his death.
Chilima died just over a month ago alongside eight others, including former first lady Shanil Dzimbiri, when the military aircraft he was travelling in crashed into Malawi’s Chikangawa Forest in dense fog.
His United Transformation Movement (UTM) had been in a governing alliance alongside President Lazarus Chakwera’s Malawi Congress Party (MCP) since fielding a joint ticket in the 2020 presidential election.
The UTM said in a statement that it was dissatisfied with the MCP’s governance and expressed concern over the circumstances surrounding Chilima’s death.
“The spirit and the letter of the Alliance Agreement was undermined and betrayed by our colleagues,” the UTM said, adding that the “very existence of the agreement was denied”.
The party had previously demanded an investigation into the aeroplane crash just days after Chilima’s death.
“The mysterious events surrounding the crashing of the aircraft… the way information surrounding the incident was managed and the handling of the search and rescue effort leaves a lot of room for speculation,” the party said.
The military plane carrying the former vice-president disappeared after it failed to land in the northern city of Mzuzu due to bad weather and was told to return to the capital, Lilongwe.
The day after the crash, Chakwera inisisted their were no problems with the aeroplane.
He said he had previously flown on the same aircraft and that the crew had successfully operated it just hours before the accident.
The UTM threatened to call protesters onto the streets if its demands for an inquiry were not met.
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Source: AFP
Picture: X/@THISisLULE
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