Sources in the Malawian Government are indicating that the chances of finding anyone alive in the missing military plane carrying Malawi’s Vice President, Dr. Saulos Chilima, are now very slim.
It has also been confirmed that the Vice President’s wife, Mary, was not on the flight as earlier reported by some media outlets.
Sources tell me that the Vice President had returned from abroad and was tired from traveling and reluctant to travel to the funeral of a prominent Malawian lawyer, Ralph Kasambala in Mzuzu, but was encouraged to attend.
He flew instead of driving to the funeral in order to be back in Lilongwe in time to see off President Lazarus Chakwera, who was supposed to leave today for the Bahamas, a trip that he has now shelved because of this aviation tragedy.
It is a tradition in Malawi for the Vice President and the cabinet to see off the President whenever he travels.
Also on the Vice President’s flight was the ex-wife of former Malawian President Dr. Bakili Muluzi.
Plans are being made for the former president to go to Lilongwe from Blantyre.
Sources in the military are complaining about the state of unpreparedness and lack of equipment for such an important search and rescue mission.
It is reported that cabinet is meeting this evening in Malawi.
The plane went missing in the morning and the announcement was only made this evening through State house in Lilongwe.
The relationship between President Lazarus Chakwera and his Vice President, Dr. Saulos Chilima has been complex and often strained since they came into power.
Initially, the two political leaders formed a political election alliance to win the 2020 presidential election, with Chakwera from the Malawi Congress Party (MCP) and Chilima from the United Transformation Movement (UTM) running on a joint ticket. This partnership was instrumental in their electoral victory against former president Prof. Peter Mutharika.
President Chakwera’s government prosecuted Dr. Chilima for corruption in 2022, but the courts threw out the charges last month because, as many had said, they were politically motivated to stop Chilima from running against Chakwera in 2025.
The dismissal of the corruption charges cleared the way for Dr. Saulos Chilima to run for the presidency against his boss next year.
The Vice President once said that the two men had agreed that Chakwera would run for one term, but the president reneged on the agreement.
Dr. Chilima said that was political fraud if it happened.
The next Malawian general elections are scheduled to take place in 2025, and the Vice President would have gone head-to-head against President Chakwera.
