…liaison officer, commandant beaten
…party gurus named as running panga gangs
In a proper James Bond style, National Intelligence Services (NIS) Director General Dokani Ngwira had to show his spy clean pair of heels, dodging and running away from machete-armed Malawi Congress Party (MCP) Youth League members at Kamuzu International Airport (KIA), The Investigator Magazine can reveal.
The MCP Youth League under President Lazarus Chakwera, Secretary General Richard Chimwendo Banda and Director of Youth Steven Baba Malondera has been armed with panga knives that are being used publicly against anyone who is seen as subversive to the ruling party.
On the same Tuesday, the gang which has extended its terror activities in Lilongwe hacked each other in Lilongwe’s populous Ngwenya high-density area, resulting in one of the gang leaders Nelson Kumchina losing all his property, after the communities tired of MCP Youth impunity and Police inaction took the law in their own hands and administered mob justice. The angry community is still hunting for other MCP Youth leaders.
NIS Boss attack at KIA
According to our sources, an hour before President Chakwera landed from the trip to Dubai, where he attended an Eid party, Ngwira landed at Kamuzu International Airport from an official trip to the United States of America.
MCP cadres had gathered to welcome Chakwera, but surprisingly, the Youth carried their party-sponsored panga knives into the airport apron, raising questions about how safe the airport is as the gang freely roamed with panga knives on them.
“They started coordinating to attack him immediately he came out of the plane. Some NIS officers were near them and heard of the plot. He was whisked away through the MDF parade and put in a car where he left in high speed. Seeing a Head of Intelligence run away for his dear life is sad. This impunity will cause civil war in this country,” said an eyewitness from one of the security agencies.
As the gang charged towards Ngwira, MDF officials blocked them, and a scuffle ensued for a while before the gang left the MDF area and went to charge towards an NIS liaison officer Daniel Salimu who was accused of allowing Ngwira to escape.
“They assaulted him and the Airport Commandant in full view of the MDF and the Malawi Police Service. They were shouting ‘tithana nanu nonse’. There was some blood,” charged an angry airport official who said the incident was grossly unacceptable and President Chakwera cannot continue to pretend that armed MCP Youth leaguers are part of Malawi’s democratic state.
“There was some blood, but everyone was scared. If this can happen to the Head of a Security Agency, then everyone should know Malawi is no longer a safe place,” added a VIP lounge guest who had to ask his family escorting him to leave the airport after noticing the panga’s carried by MCP Youth.
Why is Ngwira targeted?
Dokani Ngwira who served the NIS predecessor the National Intelligence Bureau (NIB) as Director of Foreign Services under President Bakili Muluzi went into full-time Gospel Ministry where he has been close to the incumbent President. He was appointed as President Chakwera’s first NIS Chief.
He is seen as an outsider from the party structure as he came from the church. The MCP Youth claim he refuses to work with party officials; hence he should leave.
Tribalism is a second factor with others claiming the party wants someone from the central region while his accusers charge, he has split the NIS and recruited more “home boys” citing a recent training trip to Morrocco as full of his personal “loyalists.” They also claim that there is mismanagement as Public Access Fund was stopped due to misuse of funds at the spy agency.
Yet others are pointing fingers at Secretary General Chimwendo Banda who is said to have been unhappy with intelligence that corresponded with the Afrobarometer’s recent survey but put DPP at 47% percent and MCP at 17% that NIS presented to the President.
“It’s a power struggle. His contract ended and someone wants his position to go to a puppet. Dokani seems not to be an easy pushover, that’s why they are creating lots and lots of allegations and causing mayhem to discredit him,” said a NIS officer The Investigator Magazine spoke to.
Other MCP supporters claim he is a Secretary to the President and Cabinet Colleen Zamba spy who is paving the way for the iron lady at the OPC to have a go in the 2030 succession race that would see her run against SG Chimwendo Banda and probably State Residence Chief of Staff Prince Kapondamgaga who are among those being mentioned as President Chakwera’s possible successors.
Editors View: SG Chimwendo, Malondera: You can’t hack voters and win
The Malawi Congress Party (MCP) has a bad history of killings, torture and impunity that lasted 31 years last time they were in power. The arrests of activists like Bon Kalindo, Slyvester Namiwa and Journalists and opposition figures seen as critical of the MCP government rekindle such memories.
Seeing panga knives on the streets of the Malawi capital, not once but twice in November to stop anti-administration demonstrations confirms that violent genes can be hereditary. It is difficult to understand how Chimwendo Banda as former Director of Youth and now powerful Secretary General and his stooge Director of Youth Baba Malondera think they can hack 6 million voters to vote for the party in 2025.
The UDF once had its notorious Young Democrats we called Young Demons and the DPP created Cadets. Both ended in tears. The more they brandished machetes or panga knives in public, the more voters they lost. Bingu wa Mutharika had the highest number of voters since the return of multiparty democracy without a single machete on the display.
The inaction by the Police, and the silence of President Chakwera, Chimwendo Banda and Malondera can be blamed on the chilling and embarrassing episode at the KIA hours before the President landed. Unfortunately, that impunity where panga knives are either in Malawi’s streets or now airports can be ended by two or three people in charge of the party.
These poor bouncers being abused for K50,000 will one day, when the poor is gone turn into state witnesses as Malawians will seek to find out who bought the panga’s and distributed them. You can’t simply hack voters and expect to win. End this impunity now.
