Malawi: 'Black Box' Row Rears Its Head for Second Day Running

The explosive "Black Box" controversy that brought Malawi's Parliament to a standstill on Wednesday reared its head once more Thursday, plunging the House back into chaos after Dedza Mulunduni MP and Malawi Congress Party (MCP) Chief Whip Moses Kunkuyu leapt to his feet on a point of order.

The fresh flashpoint came after Government Chief Whip Patricia Wiskesi uttered the now-notorious phrase during proceedings -- the very same trigger that forced Speaker Sameer Suleman to adjourn the House earlier amid furious exchanges across the chamber.

The nickname is no accident. It is a dark reference to Kunkuyu's own words from June 2024, when, as minister of information at the time, he told journalists that a "black box" would be central to investigations into the military plane crash that killed vice-president Saulos Chilima and eight others on 10 June 2024.

Those words have since come back to haunt him, with MPs on the government benches now hurling the phrase across the chamber as a taunt -- a jibe MCP members regard as a cruel mockery of one of Malawi's darkest tragedies.

The crash claimed the lives of Chilima, former first lady Patricia Shanil Muluzi, and seven others, including the Malawi Defence Force flight crew.

A commission of inquiry set up under former president Lazarus Chakwera ruled out foul play, blaming bad weather and human error, a finding later backed by a technical report from Germany's Federal Bureau of Aircraft Accident Investigation. But President Peter Mutharika ordered a fresh probe earlier this year after Justice Minister Charles Mhango flagged troubling gaps in the earlier investigations, and a parliamentary inquiry is now underway -- one that has heard the Dornier aircraft was never fitted with a cockpit voice recorder or flight data recorder in the first place, meaning the "black box" central to Kunkuyu's original 2024 remarks did not actually exist.

With tempers again threatening to boil over, First Deputy Speaker Victor Musowa moved swiftly to defuse the row, ruling that Wiskesi could withdraw the name in her own time -- or, alternatively, thrash the matter out privately with Kunkuyu at a later date.

Amid the drama, Leader of the House Jappie Mhango appealed to MPs to get their priorities straight, urging colleagues to devote precious parliamentary time to issues that actually matter to ordinary Malawians rather than squabbles that deliver nothing for constituents back home.

The unresolved row now leaves a cloud hanging over the chamber, with MPs on both sides braced for the "Black Box" saga to resurface yet again before it is finally laid to rest.

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View original source — AllAfrica ↗

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