By Lyson Dzoole
It’s been over 60 days since the plane crash that took Vice President Dr. Saulos Klaus Chilima and eight others from us. Over 60 days of heartbreak, confusion, and, let’s face it, straight-up lies from a government that seems more interested in saving face than saving its soul. For Mary Nkhamanyachi Chilima, the widow of the late Vice President, these past weeks have been a cruel stretch of grief and unanswered questions. Questions that, to this day, remain buried under a pile of official double-talk.
On August 9, 2024, Mary laid bare her raw emotion in a social media post that cut through the government’s noise: “Day 60 without you, my love, and I still do not understand.” Sixty days on, and she still doesn’t have a clue about what happened. If the government says a preliminary report was shared, why is she still in the dark? Why does she still have burning questions with no answers?
The truth is, the government’s handling of this tragedy has been a joke. President Lazarus Chakwera claimed there was a report. Then, his own Minister of Information, Moses Kunkuyu Kalongashawa, flipped the script and said, “Nah, no report yet—wait until August 30.” And just to keep the circus going, Leader of the House Chimwendo Banda and Minister of Transport Jacob Hara both doubled down in Parliament, insisting there was no report. So, what’s the deal here? Are they all just playing us for fools?
If Mary Chilima had really been given a preliminary report, would she be posting online about how lost and confused she still feels? Would she be pouring her heart out about still not understanding what happened to her husband? Her post says it all—either she got no report, or what she got was a load of empty words that didn’t answer a damn thing.
This isn’t just sloppy work; it’s a slap in the face to everyone grieving this loss. A widow deserves the truth. The families of the victims deserve transparency. And the Malawian people deserve a government that doesn’t treat them like idiots. Every conflicting statement, every delay, every lie just adds more salt to the wound. It’s cruel, it’s cowardly, and it’s time we call it what it is—a betrayal.
Mary’s words—“I still do not understand”—are more than just a personal cry of grief. They’re a wake-up call. They’re a demand for honesty from a government that has been anything but. We’ve heard enough excuses, enough dodging, enough lies. Mary’s pain is our pain, and her questions are our questions.
More than 60 days of waiting, and still nothing but a big, fat question mark. No answers, no accountability, just more smoke and mirrors from a government that seems to think we’ll just move on. Well, we won’t. Mary Chilima deserves better. The families of the other victims deserve better. Malawi deserves better.
It’s time to stop the games. It’s time to stop the lies. It’s time for the truth. Enough is enough.
