Centre for Democracy and Economic Development Initiatives (CDEDI) has insisted that President Dr. Lazarus Chakwera must personally and publicly distance himself from remarks made by the Malawi Congress Party (MCP) vice president responsible for the Northern Region, Harry Mkandawire, on Malawi Enterprise Development Fund (MEDF) loans disbursement and not through his executive assistant.

Mkandawire is on record for telling MCP supporters in Karonga that they will be prioritized in MEDF loan disbursement.

But in reaction, Chakwera, through his Executive Assistant, Sean Kampondeni, said his administration is committed to ensuring that the MEDF loans are depoliticized.

Kampondeni said: “The current status of MEDF loan is that its management has been sent on leave pending an audit of the scheme in order to identify elements within it that were abusive of the system including the politicizing the initiative so the president has ordered  an audit to show seriousness against depoliticizing the program.”

But CDEDI Executive Director, Sylvester Namiwa, said Kapondeni was never on the ballot paper hence the need for the Malawi leader to personally make his stand clear to Malawians.

“We leant with shock the remarks by Mkandawire which are highly insensitive and retrogressive and meanwhile we are challenging Dr. Chakwera to immediately and personally distance himself from Mkandawire’s remarks,” said Namiwa.

Namiwa further said Mkandawire’s sentiment is a repeat of the same mistake which ousted the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) from government.

“As I am talking to you now the same Tonse Alliance government has sent on leave MEDF officials and one of the reasons being the politicizing of the distribution of such loans, now the question is that are these people really serious?” he wondered.

CDEDI has also asked Chakwera to discipline Mkandawire.