By Sylvester Chibwana
Though the embattled John Kapito does not deserve to be dignified with any response to the display of his deeply entrenched hatred for Chakwera recently, this Executive Director for Consumers Association of Malawi (CAMA) has crossed the red line. His unfiltered comments show plenty of obvious signs that he passed his prime time for relevance. His attitude resembles the position by most of his colleagues; some old politicians from the previous administration, who have recently displayed their being clueless and distanced from reality by asking Chakwera to resign and hold a referendum. This level of hate for Chakwera’s administration is stunning to any citizen with a normal psychic.
In his memo addressed to the Press, Kapito categorises Chakwera’s cabinet as being full of incompetent and poor performing Ministers. Really? One wonders about his benchmark. Ironically, the ministries he listed as not performing; Finance by Gwengwe, Information by Kazako, National Unity/Civic Education by Mtambo, Health by Chiponda, Local Government by Chimsinga, Homeland by Sendeza, and Education by Nyalonje are some of the critical ministries that have performed wonders and made Chakwera’s adminstration prove to Malawians that their vote counts.
Chakwera has not reserved his high resolve to end corruption, reform the public sector and Government systems, bring back law and order, build national peace and unity, scatter infrastructure projects across the nation: water, energy, roads, bridges, schools, sports complexes, and turn around the economy, just to mention a few.
Kapito’s naked attack on Chakwera, the Reserve Bank Governor, Ministry of National Unity and other ministries speaks volumes about who his real masters are. One would easily see the hypocrisy in his tone. Kapito addresses his wise ideas only to the Media instead of Chakwera himself; either purporting his advice is never really that relevant OR that Chakwera would never give him the audience. On this I will let others judge whether the President should take Kapito’s activism as serious and sincere enough in the best interest of the ordinary citizen.
For sure Kapito has no interest in resolving the challenges common Malawians face every day. This is why he never said anything when the former Reserve Bank Governor and colleagues mercilessly milked taxpayers through weird monthly salaries of over 20million each during the DPP era while the majority of citizens (the consumers) went to sleep every night on empty stomachs. Instead, Kapito should have thanked Chakwera for destroying this cartel of unforgiving thieves at the Reserve Bank of Malawi.
Kapito never offered any inch of wisdom on how to resolve the economic challenges Malawi has faced due to the global crises such as Covid 19, and the war in Ukraine and Russia. Mr. Kapito never fights for the consumers (the citizens) he claims to represent when some unscrupulous businessmen unfairly bloat out commodity prices all in the sham name of rising fuel prices.
Chakwera’s administration has done its best to resolve the fuel shortage and donor flight that brought so much pain. Chakwera’s restoration of donor confidence means nothing to Kapito who has never congratulated the President for his relentless fight against corruption, and for bringing back the IMF, World Bank, USA Government’s confidence in the economy. Are the current wave of grants and donations by WFP, IMF, the Moroccan Government and plenty not evidence enough of great strides? Are the Cabinet Ministers not the ones doing the ground work?
Now about national unity and peace, any wise person would be thinking of investing in the Ministry of National Unity and Civic Education for the consolidation of the national peace infrastructure, national building and healing, civic empowerment and promotion of patriotism and national values.
Democratic national values mean nothing to Kapito who has been Executive Director for CAMA for close to 30 years now, yet young blood has remained jobless and languishing in poverty. When all these immigrants come in masses to Malawi, never should one think that they were all destitute. It entails that peace and national unity in their countries were neglected and breached. But peace is never really the absence of armed conflict. We have conflicts and deeply rooted divisions all across religious, ethnic, tribal, regional, and political lines. We must constantly therefore continue addressing what brings hate among us and divides us.
Kapito’s obvious hate for Mtambo and Chakwera should never be mistaken as his love for Malawi. He is one of the longest serving activists whom Mtambo found in the civic space, led them in the struggle against the corrupt DPP, and left them there. Kapito’s hatred makes his frustrations conspicuous; he had aspirations for a cabinet position in the Tonse Government. One should see him as a disgruntled activist.
Our country is more polarized than ever before in our history. Our politics has become more tribalistic and regionalised than ever, especially with nepotistic mentalities like Kapito who has been Executive Director for CAMA since 1994, even before half of the Malawian population was born. With the 50+1 electoral challenge, this country will need to be more united than ever before on patriotism and other national values other than on tribal and party politics.
Malawians are hucking each other, killing each other, burning each other’s houses, burning our old people, grabbing land from each day everyday due to various misunderstandings in our communities. Our people have lost their civic values; we are becoming a bitter nation where hate has become the order of the day. In fact our nation needs serious reorientation, healing and building. Kapito should be reminded that mindset change is a key driver of our national vision MW2063 and civic and character education is a panecia in this regard. This is why the Ministry of National Unity and Civic Education was assigned this huge responsibility. To ask Chakwera to disband this Ministry, his own brainchild and insignia to his Tonse vision for national unity, is tantamount to asking him to resign.
Kapito must be reminded that in the leadership philosophy of the current administration the SuperHi5 he referred to in his statement, uniting Malawi is one of them. In the past we have been told that old people are the fountain of wisdom, unfortunately Kapito is not wise enough to think that populistic politics has never developed any country.
