By Chisomo Phiri
President Dr.Lazarus Chakwera has announced that his vice Dr.Saulos Chilima and nine others that were with him in the Malawi Defence Force (MDF) aircraft that crashed yesterday,have died.
In a televised speech, Chakwera has hailed Late Chilima as the best vice president and counsellor in the past 4 years of his presidency.
He has appealed to Malawians to stand together as one people during this time, as the country expects for a dignified burial for all the deceased.
In his address to the nation, Chakwera said the wreckage of the plane that carried the late Chilima has been found today Tuesday June 11,2024 in Chikangawa forest in Mzimba District.
The president conveyed his condolences to the families of those who have died in the crash, and the entire nation.
“I can only imagine how much pain and anguish you all must be having at this point in time,” the President said.
He described Chilima as a distinctive man of honour, a great father and husband, as well as a great patriot who has served the nation selflessly.
“I consider it one of my greatest honour to be deputised by him in the last four years,” he said.
Other individuals in the plane were Lucas Kapheni, Chisomo Chimaneni, Shanil Dzimbiri, Dan Kanyemba, Abdul Lapukeni, Colonel Sambalopa, Major Selemani and Major Aidin, whom the president described as great men and women of the nation and their death is a great loss to the people of Malawi.
Chakwera extended his heartfelt appreciation to the Malawi Defence Force and all parties involved in the search and rescue mission.
He also extended his gratitude to all former Heads of State for the support they have pledged during these trying times.
Born on 12 February 1973 at Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital, in Blantyre, Chilima was the first child of Henderson Brown Chilima of Ching’anga Village, T/A Njewa, Lilongwe and Elizabeth Frances Chilima of Mbilintengerenji Village, T/A Champiti, Ntcheu.
Chilima spent most of his early life in Blantyre where his parents were working and spent his long school (summer) holidays with his paternal and maternal grandparents in the villages of Lilongwe and Ntcheu, respectively.
Chilima did his primary school at HHI and Dharap primary schools, and his secondary education at the Marist Brothers Mtendere Secondary School Thiwi in the Dedza District.
He went on to the University of Malawi, Chancellor College, where he graduated with a degree in social sciences in 1994.
After working for a few years, he returned to his alma mater to pursue a master’s degree in Knowledge Management, graduating in 2006.
On 10 August 2015, Chilima received his Ph.D in Knowledge Management from the University of Bolton in the United Kingdom.
On 21 July 2018, Chilima launched his transformation movement called United Transformation Movement (UTM) towards formation of his political party to contest in May 2019 elections.
On 1 February 2019 Chilima’s UTM held meetings with two other political parties and an alliance of smaller political parties aimed at forming a united opposition.
The other parties to the discussion were the Alliance for Democracy (Aford), former Malawi President Joyce Banda’s Peoples Party, and the Tikonze People’s Movement led by former Vice President Cassim Chilumpha.
They agreed to field one presidential candidate for the election.
Both Joyce Banda and Cassim Chilumpha later withdrew from the alliance citing “disagreement with the selection of a presidential running mate for the candidate of the upcoming election” as their reason.
In the election that was later nullified, Chilima alongside Dr Michael Usi as a running mate came third with 20.24% of the popular vote and UTM won 4 seats in the National Assembly.
The presidential election of 2019 was held again in 2020.
In the 2020 presidential election, Chilima contested the race as Lazarus Chakwera’s running mate for the Malawi Congress Party, in the Tonse alliance which brought up to nine opposition political parties with hopes to topple the Mutharika administration.
On 22 June 2022, Chilima was stripped of his delegated powers as a vice president due to his involvement in a $150m corruption scandal.
