Days after the UTM Party central committee abandoned the governing Tonse Alliance, Vice-President Michael Usi says he will work with President Lazarus Chakwera to ensure the late Saulos Chilima’s policies are implemented.
S p e a k i n g a t K a m e z a Roundabout in Blantyre yesterday on arrival from Lilongwe, he said the President has urged him to address issues of provision of maize and business loans to people.
Said Usi: “Dr. Chilima wanted people to be having three meals per day and that they should receive loans, these things need to be implemented and when I asked the President about them, he told me to go for it.”
He also said he has already asked the National Economic Empowerment Fund (Neef) to disburse loans to people in the country and provide him a report in August.
During his address to the audience, which included women clad in UTM Party cloth with Chilima’s portrait emblazoned on it, Usi did not comment on the status of the alliance, but he said his focus is on developing the country.
However, in a thinly veiled reaction to the withdrawal from the alliance pencilled by Chakwera and Chilima on March 20 2020 ahead of the June 23 2020 court-sanctioned fresh presidential election, he said he was in control and preparing a dish. He said like a woman who endures the heat while cooking, he won’t succumb to pressure.
Commenting on the matter, political analyst Wonderful M k h u t c h e s a i d i t w a s understandable that Usi avoided the issue of the alliance as he is still in suspense regarding his hold on the UTM Party as well as support for his position as the country’s Vice-President.
He, however, said Usi will still have to face the reality and decide which direction he will go.
Pr e s i d e n t C h a k w e r a appointed Usi as Vice-President on June 20 2024 following the death of Chilima in a military plane crash along with eight others on June 10 2024.
In the nullified 2019 presidential election, Chilima picked Usi as his running mate and, based on the UTM Party constitution effectively became the party’s vice-president.
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