(MISA/IFEX) – Patrick Mphonda, a government district information officer in the Southern Lower Shire Valley district of Nsanje, fears for his life following a story he filed for the official Malawi News Agency (MANA). Mphonda’s article concerns Gwanda Chakuamba, the beleaguered leader of the main opposition group, the Malawi Congress Party (MCP). On Sunday 18 […]
(MISA/IFEX) – Patrick Mphonda, a government district information officer in the Southern Lower Shire Valley district of Nsanje, fears for his life following a story he filed for the official Malawi News Agency (MANA). Mphonda’s article concerns Gwanda Chakuamba, the beleaguered leader of the main opposition group, the Malawi Congress Party (MCP). On Sunday 18 March 2001, Chakuamba, who coincidentally comes from Nsanje, went to the area to console the over 100,000 people who have been displaced by floods that have devastated the district and twelve other regions. Mphonda followed him and filed a report saying that the flood victims were angry with Chakuamba because the opposition leader could only give them sweets.
When the story was taken up by the state-run Malawi Broadcasting Corporation, Chakuamba’s supporters became incensed. Mphonda told MISA in a telephone interview on Wednesday that armed police officers are guarding his house around the clock because he has received at least five anonymous telephone threats. “The callers warn me that they will do anything in order to deal with me, be it physical or by using magic,” he said.
Mphonda said that MCP youth leaders, led by a member of parliament, have been paid money to buy catapults and other weapons in order to “deal” with him.
