PH
South Africa based Malawian billionaire business magnet Simbi Phiri’s PR has been jostled to react angrily following reports that the Khato Civils executive chairperson wants to buy President Peter Mutharika a presidential jet.
Rumour mongers have been speculating on social media that Simbi Phiri wants to buy the US7 million presidential jet for Mutharika .
But Taonga Botolo, Media and Public Relations officer for Khato Civils says the rumours were not true.
“The information circulation in social media is total fabrication, malicious and deliberately twisted to distract Khato Civils from our core function of which is to pump water from Lake Malawi to the capital city, Lilongwe,” says Botolo.
Simbi Phiri was awarded the multi-million dollar project to pump the water from Lake Malawi to the capital city to end water problem woes Lilongwe Water Board faces in providing water to its residents.
He has so far constructed a police unit and a health centre in his home district of Mchinji.
Botolo said the false rumours are only aimed at defying the decorum of conducting business within the government system.
“Never at any given time has Mr Simbi Phiri spoke to anyone within and outside government of any intention to avail funds for such a purchase,” he says.
Simbi further finds the tendency of some Malawians to drag him into unnecessary rumours as distracting.
Accoridng to Botolo, Simbi is humbly appealing to fellow countrymen not to spread groundless rumors.
“Months ago he was also at centre of another hoax story that made rounds on social media dragging him into assertions that he had promised Big Bullets football club a 60-seater coach,” said Botolo.
Malawi ceased having a Presidential jet in 2013 when former President Joyce Banda traded it for arms and cereal under the pretext of saving public money.
However, to date no information has been given on where that jet went and what the whole deal entailed.
Lately President Arthur Peter Mutharika has been flying commercial in a bid to enhance his government’s austerity policies.
