Pressure is piling up on President Peter Mutharika to remove George Chaponda as
\n Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) vice president for the Southern Region
\nSome influential figures in the DPP politburo want the President to sack Chaponda because \u201chaving him in the position is costing the party dearly\u201d.
\n\u201cThe President needs no further proof on why it remains awkward and bad for the party to have someone suspected of immerse corruption deputising him; sooner or later, Dr Chaponda will [need to] be replaced until a time when he has been cleared of all the charges\u2014 should that happen,\u201d said a member of the Party\u2019s National Governing Council (NGC).
\nIn an interview yesterday, Chaponda said the court cases remain a private matter to him and cannot be discussed.
\n\u201cAt no time has the NGC discussed my issue and I have attended all meetings,\u201d he said.
\nIn January this year, Mutharika launched an investigation into the government order for 100,000 tonnes of maize from Zambia, after an opposition leader there said he had seen documents showing Malawi had been charged $345 per tonne instead of the $215 per tonne the consignment was worth.
\nThen Agriculture minister Chaponda was arrested in July, sacked and charged with abuse of office and possession of foreign currency, among other charges he is facing.
\nHe has pleaded not guilty to both charges as the trial continues.
\nSocial commentator Moses Mkandwire said two months ago that maintaining Chaponda on the position is a silent endorsement of suspected corruption and impunity by the ruling party.
\nWhen contacted, DPP spokesperson, Francis Kasaila, was non-committal but said concerns against Chaponda are based on individual opinion and that he remains a senior member of the party.
\n\u201cWe, as a party, are not aware of [calls for] the dismissal. Should there be any developments, there will be communication through our normal channels,\u201d Kasaila said.
\nYouth activist Charles Kajoloweka said yesterday that Chaponda\u2019s firing is long overdue.
\n\u201cOne would think that the very moral grounds that guided Mutharika to fire Chaponda from Cabinet would also prevail in the party. Retaining him as vice president for the Southern Region raises questions of moral uprightness within the DPP,\u201d Kajoloweka said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Pressure is piling up on President Peter Mutharika to remove George Chaponda as Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) vice president for the Southern Region Some influential figures in the DPP politburo want the President to sack Chaponda because \u201chaving him in the position is costing the party dearly\u201d. \u201cThe President needs no further proof on why […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":58220,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-58217","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58217","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58217"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58217\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58221,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58217\/revisions\/58221"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}