…To adopt Bingu ideologies
Frustrated with incessant infighting, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) estranged vice-president for the South Kondwani Nankhumwa will soon unveil his own political party which will be guided by ideologies that were widely employed by DPP founding president, the late Bingu wa Mutharika, we can reveal.
Two inside sources within DPP who are close allies to Nankhumwa, have corroborated the issue, describing it as “the only clean way out of DPP mess.”
Said one source: “The bigman [Nankhumwa] is tired of continued dirty politics in DPP and he is not amused at all. Patience has worn thin and his only way out or plan B is to form his own party which will be guided by the thinking by late Bingu wa Mutharika.”
Another source shared the same version.
He said: “It is just a matter of time before honourable Nankhumwa comes out of his cocoon to announce the birth of his own party. He is completely fed up by nauseating and stinking politics in DPP.”
We gather that currently, Nankhumwa and his ardent followers are at the height of undertaking necessary paperwork before going full-throttle to register with the registrar of political parties in Malawi.
However, the decision to form his own party runs counter to what the embattled politician proclaimed during a political rally in October 2020.
Then, Nankhumwa said he was a true and genuine son of DPP and vowed to die a DPP member.
“I was there when [late] president Bingu wa Mutharika formed DPP in 2005.I have never for once thought of leaving this party,” he said.
He added: “Indeed is passing through turbulence pertaining to leadership succession but that shall pass and we must not allow it to distract us from our work of spreading the gospel according to the DPP.”
Nankhumwa and former president Peter Mutharika, who is the incumbent DPP leader-have in recent times not seen each other eye to eye.
The mudslinging within the party reached a crisis proportion in January when Mutharika expressed displeasure with the conduct of Nankhumwa for using the late Bingu wa Mutharika’s portrait in his campaign poster.
On the said controversial poster in question which DPP spokesperson Shadric Namalomba shared on Monday, Nankhumwa allegedly indicated that “power is never given on a silver platter, you must fight for it”
But political pundits reprimanded Mutharika’s action, saying the former president was being too mean for nothing, arguing that he was exhibiting traits of a frustrated person.
Political commentator Humphrey Mvula said if he had any issues against Nankhumwa, the best Mutharika should have done was to engage the aspirant privately instead of issuing public statements.
Most recently, Nankhumwa fired Joseph Mwanamvekha as the party’s spokesperson on finance.
The development came barely weeks after Mwanamvenkha resigned from Nankhumwa’s shadow Cabinet.