He has been at the head of the
central bank, University of Malawi,
Press Corporation, he has been ministers and is considered to be the
closest crony Kamuzu Banda has, so far he is the longest serving
parliamentarian in Malawi and heads the opposition in Parliament, but that is
far from being all that makes John Zenus Ungapake Tembo.
I landed an exclusive with John
Tembo on condition that I will stick to my promise that I will not ask
political questions; of course we both knew that was not true for a man like
Tembo.
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| No regrets for me... |
I was ushered into his Area 10 house’s
living room at exactly 2:10 pm, I was made to wait for a couple of minutes and
I wondered what the interview would be like, with the man that had been a
politician over thirty years before I was born.
He is definitely a collector, his
living room which spans the size of a volleyball court is laden with vintage
ornaments, and four sets of Ivory block the fireplace, pure copper bowls and
containers fill cabinets, gold plated gourds…
A painting the size of a three-quarter
bed hangs over the fireplace, there are several over picture frames but among
them, the biggest picture of a person is of Kamuzu, a youthful Kamuzu standing
behind a chair and placing his hands on it, whoever lives in this house, I
concluded, must love Kamuzu Banda.
“very close in as much as a
politician, a president of a party later on of a nation…I became a very senior
follower of Kamuzu and royal to him, I became a royal servant of Kamuzu which I
am still, although he is late, I pledged royalty to him and I pledge royalty
now, to him to the foundations of his policy in the party and in the
government,” he said, slowly.
Those who say Kamuzu was dictator
have wrong literature, to Tembo kamuzu was not a dictator, he was a nationalist
and a fighter for freedom, democracy which today’s youths should actually
emulate.
He said the fact that Kamuzu left
his medicine practice in Ghana and Europe to liberate Malawians from bondage
speaks of the man Kamuzu was.
Tembo sees little difference
between the politics of 1961 and now and actually said democracy was there too
it is why Kamuzu had a competitor of the United Federal Party member from
Kasungu and himself opposed by a Mr. Mwase in his Dedza constituency.
Tembo had a smooth run in the thirty
or so years Kamuzu Banda was in power, most of Kamuzu's friends fell out of grace
and were exiled, and detained without explanations…I can cite the likes of Jen
Mlanga and Focus Gwede.
After MCP was voted out of the
limelight at the start of the 90s, Bakili Muluzi was to become of on John
Tembo's worst nightmares, he was constantly telling Malawians that Tembo has
blood on his hands and knows something
of the 1983 Mwanza murders in which four prominent cabinet ministers were
mysteriously slain.
And yet Tembo was soon working
with Bakili Muluzi, did he not feel bitter over the court hustles that the
Muluzi regime dragged him through?
“Dr. Muluzi and I speak to each
other now …if you ask him properly he will tell you that it was all wrong to
accuse me of murder, I went through a lot of bad things in the opposition, I
was arrested several times, went to jail several times I was acquitted in all
of them.
"I think anybody who holds and
maintains hatred in his heart is not a politician, he is a crook,” he said,
then paused allowing me to take down his exact words.
But I was unconvinced, all this
talk about Banda being a dictator about murders such as that of Mkwapatira
Mhango has to have a basis, so if Kamuzu was not a dictator and Tembo clean in
all the dark ages Decades Malawi went through, why is Kamuzu's name still
crimson?
“It’s his political enemies
beginning with the colonialists...after all the colonialists imprisoned Kamuzu
and even sent him to Gweru in Rhodesia and knew later it was wrong this is why
he became the first prime minister of this country they knew he was fighting
for the poor,” said Tembo, briefly disturbed by a phone call.
The Manchester United fan, a mug
sits on one of the shelves to certify his claim. He says he loves reading
politics, sports and philosophy and has a lot of books in his private studies
at his Area 10 and Blantyre residences.
His secretary Mrs. Chinangwa is
busy seeing to parliamentary bills that Tembo will be seeing to as leader of
opposition. But at 80, something looks normal; he looks 50 and still very
active, active as a 35 year old. I had to ask, what is his survival kit made
of?
Well, he used to play soccer and
do athletics but that was in his youth.
“I live well, I eat well and I
look after myself, I am active in life. Old age is what a person thinks about
himself: Some people are old so early and some are young so late in life, it
depends on the mental interest of the person,” He said, still inserting pauses
in his speech stride.
Despite taking pride in his wife,
Ruth who he said is a great cook and a professional dietician; he still
maintained that food is just a small part of life.
And then he dwelt on his wife; he
first met her when he was a university chap in Lesotho and her in secondary
school and the next time he met her in London some years later, he could not wait
another moment.
Was he ashy guy so as to meet a
girl in college and wait till he was a minister to ask her out?
“A proposal is made when you are
ready to propose marriage and when you propose marriage it means you know the
person…at the time we were both mature, she is the one god chose for me. She is
a magnanimous woman, very loving, very responsible and a very straight
Christian,” said Tembo
After dating her for three years,
he married her in 1969. He boast of her England trained culinary prowess, he
married her while she worked as a dietician at a Leeds hospital.
“She is an excellent cook, I grew
up eating nsima, and up to bow I like nsima with ndiwo, whether its vegetables,
meat or fish,” said Tembo.
As a person, Tembo revealed that
his principals are linked to his growing up in the village where he herded his grandmother’s
sheep, goats and cattle, gardening and doing almost all that the village puts
to a youth man.
With a Christian background of a
father who started as a teacher and ending up as a reverend, Tembo remembers
his father as a very kind person who liked people with people liking him back,
he along his 8 siblings had to move from mission to mission.
“My father was a reverend of the
CCAP church…very disciplined, he taught all his children to be disciplined, you
should also ask about my mother, she was a very kind and generous woman,
everybody who visited her house did not leave without eating something, that
was her philosophy,” said Tembo.
He says he is proud father,
saying he never used a rod on his children and let associations in school and
society. All of them graduates and working outside Malawi.
After teaching for a brief stint,
Tembo joined politics and he says his success in politics stems from the fact
that since his youth he has always been committed to people and his experience
in teaching and head mastering fostered his values of excellence and
discipline.
On the upcoming MCP convention
where a few young brains are ready to take him on for the post of the MCP
presidency, Tembo could not only say that he is barring no one and said those
declaring that they are candidates are not bonafide MPC members because the
convention is the one supposed to decide that.
“The choice of candidates is the
responsibility of the convention, it’s not therefore my responsibility to break
the rules, regulations and tradition of the MCP and start saying I am the
candidate, I will stand as a candidate, it’s not for me, it’s the
responsibility of the people of the MCP if you find anyone saying I will be, he
is not a member of the MCP, he is not, he is somebody who is trying to exploit
members of the MCP,” said Tembo, rattled.
On the quality of the debate of
the Malawi Parliament, Tembo bemoaned the immature people who come to
parliament to get rich.
“When you find people becoming MP
of this political party next time they join another, and another time they join
another, those are not politicians. Multiparty politics does not mean
prostitution of one’s life in politics,” charged Tembo.
He vehemently denied the rumours
that went to town that he was on the card to being the second vice president in
the Joyce Banda’s regime.
He also trashed the accusations
that he is now a lesser opposition politician because President Banda has appointed
his son and relatives to top positions namely Nancy Tembo to the Electoral
Commission and Tembo’s own son to the diplomatic office in England.
“Never, I mean people who say
that don’t even know who president Joyce Banda is and who I am...they don’t
know… do you think I am in a position to go to a president of a country to say
go and appoint Morgan Tembo to this or his wife that or my son to that?
“Do they think I can do that? It
shows ignorance: No Malawian citizen is barred from appointment in the
government if qualified,” said Tembo.
On Bingu Wa Mutharika’s
leadership, Tembo just had a sentence on it.
“Argghh it was hopeless, declamatory
…he destroyed the foundation and dignity of this country,” said Tembo and
refused to expound.
He reminds me that his life is
not over to describe his highs and lows and proudly declared that he has no
regrets, whatever came to his life bad or good he took it, moved on
“I haven’t reached my highest
point [in life]…In a normal life of person, you take the full range of
experience, but there is no experience I regret for,” said Tembo.
“I have never changed, I stick to
my principles…I believe in the dignity and life as a Malawian and of
Malawians…I believe in the dignity of African, there are people such as Nkrumah,
Sékou Touré, Kenyatta who have inspired me…,” said Tembo.
He revealed that he is a musical
person and enjoys classical music, he enjoys listening to his daughter who when
she come from overseas plays the piano and the classical guitar.
An extensive traveler, boasting
that he has been everywhere in all the continents and the only significant
country he has not been is Australia.
On the current situation rotten
economy Malawi is swimming in, Tembo said Malawians need to focus of
agriculture and be handworkers.
“We have to develop our own
country, we must be hardworking, this country is agricultural, priority must be
given to agriculture, over 80 percent of our people live in the rural areas and
are involved in agriculture…”
Still on the economy, Tembo said
the current bad economy is partly due to bad economic management saying the
current standing of the Kwacha to the Dollar speaks for itself, when he was
Reserve Bank governor, he says Kwacha was at K2 to a the British Pound which he
said was no mean feat.
He also rained on the people that
have led to the woes rocking the University of Malawi where some students at
Bunda had to live in grass thatched houses and some are currently being housed
where there used to store cement, among other woes.
