Simbi financed Chakwera campaign, nothing to hide but no favours – State House
State Residences director of communications and executive assistant to President Lazarus Chakwera has said there is nothing to hide that South Africa-based business mogul Simbi Phiri of Khato Civils is connected to the Malawi leader and supported his election campaign but that he will not get preferential treatment in doing business with government.
Simbi Phiri has been honest and transparent enough to state that he has provided financial support to two of the country’s major political parties—Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and Malawi Congress Party (MCP) of Chakwera.
In DPP, Simbi Phiri supported the party and mainly through Ben Phiri the former minister.
Simbi is also on record to have said individual politicians from MCP, DPP and even Aford—especially those seeking parliamentary seats—have also gone to him with begging bowls.
He has drilled boreholes for them in their names and helped with other resources because, according to him, he believed those individuals would contribute to national development in a patriotic manner.
Responding to a journalist question during the third session of the newly-introduced State House Press Office weekly briefing at Kamuzu Palace in Lilongwe on Monday, Kampondeni acknowledged the personal relationship of President Chakwera and Simbi, whose Khato Civil have a multi-billion kwacha Salima-Lilongwe Water project.
“You are right in saying that Mr Simbi Phiri is on record, publicly, saying that he has financed various campaigns across the country, not just at presidential level. He has also made contributions to parliamentary races and so forth. He has, made that public and the President has never said anything publicly to contradict him” said Kampondeni.
President Chakwera’s spin doctor added: “ You also mentioned that one of his contributions to the President’s campaign was a contribution of a motor vehicle and that the vehicle was part of declaration of assets published in the local papers which is something no President in this country has ever done to have their assets published in the local newspapers. There is nothing to hide regarding the contributions of that vehicle.”
Phiri— whose home in Mchinji is only 20 kilometres away to Chakwera’s — has shown he has nothing and no reason to hide anything because he does it out of conviction, not necessarily expecting politicians to grant him business favours once they happen to have the power to do so.
State House prolocutor pointed out that the Salima- Lilongwe Water Project, designed to pump and deliver 50 million litres of potable water from Salima to Lilongwe City every day over a distance of abour 120 kilometers was initiated before during the DPP administration led by immediate-past president Peter Mutharika.
The project is currenly financed in the 2020/21 national budget.
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In all fairness call for bidders to compete for this Salima water project. It was wrong for DDP to hand pick Simbi. Single sourcing with a justification that he is political parties financier tantamount to corruption at the highest order. God save Malawi from these greedy political angles
Thanks for declaring this bribery to the public. We have kept record. And we believe that Simbi is still palm-oiling Chakwera todate. How come that Simbi shall do the Environmental Impact Assessment of the project by himself and also grab the water project contact himself? Mwatansatu pachibale panu ku State House ko.
Nanunso inu….! Don’t you know that it is the role of every contractor to do their own EIA to justify their actions and or costs? Awanso……………..! What do you think this (your comments and or actions) is displaying on yourself?
Nyau iwe
Pumping 50,000,000 litres every day from Lake Malawi in Salima-Lilongwe Project. This lake will dry up one day. Mark my words.
Transparency sometimes kills
Son In-law simunthu wamba timva zambiri keep it up informing the nation, like my case didn’t know all this
If Chakwera indeed had nothing to hide, why didn’t he declare during his Asset Declaration exercise that the car was a gift from Simbi, as opposed to some invisible “well-wisher”? Crucially, such expensive gifts to politicians come at a cost to us all because they have a potential of being deeply corrupting. We would like to know what was the quid pro quo in this case. The Salima-Lilongwe water pipe contract, perhaps? Instead of having an independent entity assess the environmental impact of the project, apparently Simbi himself will do the assessment. Who does business like that? Whom do you… Read more »
Ngombwax, imwani madzi, muchira!!!!
It is actually not uncommon for a client to do own EIA. That is allowed. No issues about that. Ubulutu winawu osamawonetsela pagulu man.
Yes its allowed and also allowed to scrutinize the relationship. Especially where the financier has the ability to influence leadership in one way or the other. Its obvious a business person finances a party for the sake of business opportunities, lobbying etc. No one would be surprised that the Salima Water Project has been rushed once again and maintained Khato without floating it back to bidders after the initial challenges.
Foseki
You cadet when Mbuyanu come back from USA to Malawi he had nothing. Koma within a short time koma kulemela very rich. How can you justify that
In the laws of malawi, what is the maximum value of a gift to a public officer
$87 trillion US
hahaha
Keep on revealing son in-law. This is your time. My friend son in-law there is no free lunch, mark my words. It is a matter of time, this is politics not a family issue.
IF YOU claim that chakwera is honest why doesnt he reveal the contents of the agreement that he signed with Chilima. if he is honest where did he get the M35million thathe distributed to his MPs.
You’ve missed the point bwana. That’s not the issue here, and the statement is “he has nothing to hide” not ” he is honest”.
Koma
A Malawi has some people who have been bought to talk shit about the current government
Kambewa Ngozo Kamuzu also came here empty handed with just a briefcase and bodza
Unlike MCP, dpp was using public funds from MACRA, MERA, ESCOM, Water Boards etc. They stole money from the public to Mulli to used it for campaign. Simbi has been MCP through out and when dpp discovered this they worked hard to cancel the water project contract and even fired the CEO for LWB. Let dpp rest in pieces.
Do you know that the Press conferences being conducted are being sponsored by MACRA and State House is demanding 3 million weekly from MACRA?
Just keep bubbling a lot will come out shortly.