By Vincent Gunde
President and Commander in Chief of Muvi wa Chilungamo Revolutionary Party (MRP) Bantu Saunders Jumah, has asked President Dr. Lazarus Chakwera to come out from silence to provide answers on the sale of half of Lake Malawi to the neighboring Tanzania.
Jumah has warned Chakwera and his MCP that if they don’t provide convincing answers to Malawians that are demanding his explanation, they will get other means to reclaim their Lake Malawi which for years have been under the protection of former Presidents of the country.
He has dismissed an audio clip which is viral in social media quoting Minister of Information Moses Kunkuyu that fuel crisis has been there in Malawi for ages saying the truth about it is that the previous governments have been in fuel crisis but it did not reach the stage that government failed to provide solutions as the MCP has reached.
Speaking through a Revolutionary voice, Jumah said it is sad that the MCP government under President Chakwera has found a long lasting solution to fuel crisis in Malawi through selling part of Lake Malawi and some mountains to the investors.
Jumah said after seeing pictures of Kunkuyu being handed a map showing new boundaries of Lake Malawi from Tanzanian High Commissioner to Malawi, he immediately phoned two former presidents Dr. Bakili Muluzi and Madam Dr. Joyce Banda to get their reactions.
On his part, Dr. Bakili Muluzi said he invited President Benjamin Mkapa of Tanzania to Mzuzu where he received his Honorary Degree and he admitted that the whole Lake Malawi belongs to Malawi as formerly the whole lake was Nyasa for Nyasaland.
He said Madam Dr. Joyce Banda broke into tears saying she tried all of her best to protect the lake from being reclaimed by the Tanzanians and presented the issue to SADC to intervene in the dispute and as she was doing this, she already drafted papers to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in Hague-Netherlands.
Jumah said Madam Dr. Joyce Banda left before the mediation talks between Tanzania and Malawi was concluded saying openly that Lake Malawi is for Malawi as demarcated by the colonial government and according to the laws of Malawi, the whole of Lake Malawi is in Malawi.
“During the reign of Mwalimu Dr. Julius Nyerere, Jakaya Kikwete and John Pombe Magufuli discussions over the lake was at an advanced stage but when President Chakwera was elected President of Malawi, there has been nothing coming out open only in secret,” said Jumah.
He said it is very surprising to note that the Tanzanian government has built a harbor on Lake Malawi and built the rail way line connecting to this harbor while in their previous discussions, Malawi was supposed to build a port and a railway line connecting to Mtwala in Tanzania.
Jumah said the sale of Lake Malawi in secret should make Malawians open their eyes that mafias and crooks are the ones ruling the country saying a politician who has the welfare of his citizens at heart cannot sale any land belonging to his people.
