A group of youth in Nsanje has threatened to chase Democratic Progressive Party ( DPP) Member of Parliament for Nsanje Lalanje, Gladys Ganda, out of the constituency if she doesn’t respond to their demand for an audience with her.
Chairperson of the Nsanje Lalanje Youth Taskforce, MacMillan Mozeyo, said the group has written Ganda a second letter, which is a follow-up to a May letter, demanding an audience with her.
According to Mozeyo, the youth in Nsanje Lalanje constituency want Ganda to explain on how she is managing Constituency Development Fund (CDF) and on some of her campaign promises in the 2019 elections.
“We have been calling our MP Gladys Ganda for a year now but she doesn’t pick our calls. We wrote her a letter two months ago asking for interface meeting to tell us how she is using CDF and youth programmes following her manifesto but she is still paying us a deaf ear.
“This has forced us to write her a second letter and it is final. If she is not giving us feedback in two weeks’ time, then we the youth will gang up against her and chase her out of the constituency. This is our constituency and we employed her to serve us, not to abuse CDF,” Mozeyo said.
According to Mozeyo the youth group has also written their Area Development Committee (ADC) asking for an interface meeting with the members.
He said reports have shown that Ganda has for many time been refusing to attend meetings organised by the ADC.
“If an MP is refusing to attend ADC meetings that champion development activities for the constituency how can he/she be able to identify and implement development projects in the constituency,” wondered Mozeyo.
He added that Ganda is trying to frustrate the committee from demanding transparency and accountability on the use of constituency development funds.
“We are already prepared to have an interface meeting with ADC at anytime if they deem it necessary,” Mozeyo said.
Ganda, however, has fired back at the grouping, saying its members are a bunch of ruling Malawi Congress Party (MCP) sympathizers which operates outside her constituency.
“These are just individuals being sponsored by some people in Shire Valley that want all DPP politicians from Shire Valley to be looked at as failures, but they will not succeed.
“But threatening me with warnings will not work at all. My voters are the ones that I always want to exceed their expectations. Mind you, I have initiated a lot of development projects in Lalanje,” she said.
Ganda further claimed that there is only one genuine youth forum in her constituency which she updates on her development projects.
“If anything, we have Lalanje Youth Forum which engages me all the time, not that so-called taskforce whose chairperson Mozeyo is a staunch MCP supporter. I won’t go anywhere since I serve my constituents who voted me into power,” Ganda said.
