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Former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Shadow Member of Parliament for Blantyre City East Constituency Alex Chimwala who recently joined the Malawi Congress Party (MCP) has hit the ground running wooing Malawians to rally behind President Dr. Lazarus Chakwera.
On May 26, 2021 Chimwala defected from the opposition DPP and joined MCP, a party in Tonse Alliance headed by Dr. Lazarus Chakwera and his Vice Dr. Saulos Chilima.
Chimwala was welcomed into MCP by Moses Kunkuyu at the ceremony held at the Party’s Southern Region headquarters in Blantyre.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with faceofmalawi Chimwala said he has defected to MCP because of its leadership style.
“I have confidence in the leadership of Dr. Lazarus Chakwera. Chakwera is a strong leader who is ready to take Malawi to a promised land and he has proved this by taking MCP from the opposition into government.
“MCP has been on the opposition side for over 26 years and for someone to regroup such a party and move it into government it’s not a mean achievement,” said Chimwala.
He added: “MCP is a democratic party and this can be witnessed by the leadership of the party. The first President of the party was Orton Chirwa from the North followed by Dr. Hasting Kamuzu Banda from Central Region, and then Gwanda Chakwamba from Nsanje and the current leader is from Lilongwe.
“In other parties, there is no Democracy. Only family members are allowed to contest for the leadership of the party.”
When asked as to whether he has defected to MCP to seek for opportunities, Chimwala denied the claims, saying he is in politics with aim of serving Malawians and not to enrich himself.
“If I can say am looking for opportunity in MCP since it’s the party in power thus not true. To be honest with you, with or without politics I can ably sustain myself because am a businessman and my business is doing fine.
“I am following MCP because of its development agenda which is to develop Malawi and I also want to see Malawi moving forward,” said Chimwala.
Turning to his plans for MCP, Chimwala promised to take the party to the people by selling MCP’s Manifesto and that of Tonse Alliance.
“What I will bring to the people of Blantyre is the same anger that people showed DPP by overwhelmingly voting for Tonse Alliance in the fresh Presidential polls.
“The people of Blantyre were taken for granted by DPP in the sense that DPP only concentrated in developing few places such Thyolo, Mulanje, Phalombe and Chiradzulu leaving out Blantyre and this worked to their disadvantage,” said Chimwala.
He added: “Now I will tell MCP and the President to bring development projects in Blantyre such as National Stadium, build city mall at Kameza and have more by-passes to ease congestion and others.”
When asked as to whether is contemplating of contesting again in 2025 Chimwala said time will tell.
“At the moment am doing a research on what people are saying on the ground about my candidature and the results of the research is the one that will guide me and I will inform Malawians,” said Chimwala.
Chimwala lost the Parliamentary seat in Blantyre City East to John Bande who stood on Independent ticket but now he has also defected to MCP.
Meanwhile Chimwala has hit the ground running and he has lined up a number of development projects aimed at developing Blantyre City East Constituency.
