By Lifu Litete – Malawi Exclusive
Renowned social commentators have labelled Vice President Saulos Chilima’s public statement as a missed opportunity to address serious issues that many Malawians were eagerly waiting for.
On Friday morning Vice President Chilima addressed Malawians from his UTM Party’s headquarters in Area 10, Lilongwe a week after his name was mentioned as one of the high profile people that were in direct contact with UK based wanted corruption suspect Zunneth Sattar.
A report from Malawi’s Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) report confirmed the allegations from another report by the UK’s National Crime Agency that the vice president received huge sums of money from Sattar to influence award of government contracts.
However, the ACB is yet to officially interrogate him.
Addressing the nation on Friday Chilima said he is committed to see that the graft busting body is left to operate independently without interference and that he is willing to cooperate with the bureau in it’s investigations.
Reacting to the statement Willy Kambwandira who heads the Centre for Transparency and Accountability has described Chilima’s statement as lacking and empty.
Speaking through a live programme on ZBS radio called views triangle Kambwandira observed that the vice president has failed to clear his name in relation to the Zunneth Sattar corruption case which many Malawians were eagerly anticipating.
“The vice president’s speech has failed to live to people’s expectations. We expected the vice president to explain to us his relationship with Sattar.How close is he to Sattar?
Has he any point dealt with Sattar?
“But the vice president has failed to answer all these questions and worse still the president did not take questions from members of the press. To me I feel this is a missed opportunity on both vice president’s part and ofcourse Malawians at large,” said Kambwandira.
Kambwandira said he feels the Vice president was supposed to outline strategies his party and of course himself are going to undertake to support ACB’s fight against corruption.
Taking his turn, another commentator Peter Jegwa Kumwenda a seasoned journalist feels the Vice president has missed an opportunity to clear his name.
“If you read the statement which the office of the vice president issued some days ago immediately after the vice president’s name was mentioned in the Zunneth Sattar corruption report and what the vice president has said today you would notice that there are some contradictions.
“In the statement the office of the veep issued, it hinted that the vice president is clean and will clear himself but today if you listen to the vice president he has failed to exhaust the issue of corruption in relation to the Zunneth Sattar case,” said Jegwa Kumwenda.
In his public address Chilima has also told the nation that in the agreement he signed with President Dr Lazarus Chakwera the two agreed that they will support each other as presidential candidates for one term each.