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By Vincent Gunde

A Malawi Congress Party (MCP) diehard of Mvera in Dowa district Mr. Rodgers Kamphangala, has called on government to revisit food distribution exercise being implemented in the urban centres claiming that 90 percent of those that are benefiting are MCP members.

Kamphangala said unlike during the DPP era of Professor Arthur Peter Mutharika, registration of beneficiaries was not done basing on party politics but deserving Malawians regardless of their political party’s affiliations were registered as beneficiaries.

He said the compositions of Ward Development Committees (WDC) and Civil Protection Committees (CPC) is all MCP members saying this is a worrisome development making others not registered to lose trust and confidence in President Dr. Lazarus Chakwera as President of the country.

The MCP diehard has claimed that he made a visit to Bingu National Stadium and St. Francis Parish (Kanengo) in Lilongwe City where maize is being distributed to the beneficiaries claiming that other beneficiaries are being asked to honor their promises made at the time of registering their names to give a bag each to the ones who registered them or their Block Leaders.

He said some beneficiaries are claiming to have paid K15,000s to have their names registered and others did not know that their names were registered only to be told in the evening to go to the distribution centres for collection of 2 bags of maize.

Kamphangala said some residents of Area 50, Chimoka, Dubai, Ng’oma and Ngomani are claiming that those that are benefiting from this food distribution exercise are landlords and if there are tenants finding their way in, they must have corrupted their landlords or the ones tasked to register the names of beneficiaries.

He said in one house at Area 50, five names were registered from the same family father, mother and 3 children and each one has received 2 bags of maize meaning that in one house alone, 10 bags have found their way in and this could have gone to others to benefit from the same.

“If in one house, 5 names were registered as beneficiaries, there might be other families who registered more than five people to benefit more,” said Kamphangala.
He has proposed to government to halt the distribution exercise in the urban centres and allocate the food to the other districts where people are eating wild bushes (chitedze and nyika) as food for their survival.

Kamphangala has finally challenged President Dr. Lazarus Chakwera to task MCP media team to investigate distribution of food in the urban centres and report their findings to him to prove him wrong assuring him that if the registration of MCP members were done deliberately to vote for him, the party has lost direction. –