Malawi’s Vice President Saulos Chilima died over 24 hours after his plane went off the radar after taking off in Lilongwe, Malawi.
The aircraft carrying the Vice President Saulos Klaus Chilima, along with nine others, disappeared on Monday June 10.
Saulos Klaus Chilima, born on 12 February 1973, was an economist and politician who was currently serving as the Vice President of the Republic of Malawi.
He took office on 28 June 2020 after winning the majority alongside presidential candidate Lazarus Chakwera for the second term after occupying the role first on May 30, 2014.
Chilima holds a PhD in Knowledge Management from the University of Bolton, a master’s degree in economics as well as a bachelor’s degree in social sciences, Computer Science and Economics from the University of Malawi.
Dr. Chilima was the first Malawian to head Airtel Malawi the leading mobile telecommunications company in the southern African country.
He initially led the sales team before being appointed as the company’s first local managing director in 2010.
Before venturing in telecommunications, he held Senior Sales Marketing positions in the banking sector and the fast-moving consumer goods sector namely the Leasing and Finance Company, Unilever Malawi, Coca cola and Carlsberg.
Early Life of Saulos Chilima
He was the first child of Henderson Brown Chilima from Ching’anga Village, T/A Njewa, Lilongwe, and Elizabeth Frances Chilima from Mbilintengerenji Village, T/A Champiti, Ntcheu.
The economist was married to Mary Chilima and together they had two children.
At the same time, the Vice President spent most of his early life in Blantyre, where his parents worked, and he spent his long school holidays with his paternal and maternal grandparents in Lilongwe and Ntcheu, respectively.
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Chilima attended primary school at HHI and Dharap primary schools. He completed his secondary education at Marist Brothers Mtendere Secondary School Thiwi in the Dedza District.
Dr Saulos began his career at Lever Brothers (Mw) Limited (now Unilever) before moving to work at the Leasing and Finance Company of Malawi and later at Southern Bottlers Limited (now Castel Malawi).
Chilima also held the roles of Minister of Economic Planning and Development and Head of Public Sector Reforms, a position he previously occupied under former president Peter Mutharika.
Malawi’s Vice President Political Journey
In February 2014, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) announced Chilima as the running mate of presidential candidate Peter Mutharika for the May 2014 presidential election.
After winning the election, he sworn in as Vice President of the Republic of Malawi for the first time on 30th May 2014.
However, he later left the DPP to form the United Transformation Movement (UTM) and contested in the nullified 2019 general election.
Saulos Chilima launched his transformation movement called United Transformation Movement (UTM) On 21 July 2018, to pave the way for the formation of his political party, aiming to contest the May 2019 elections.
On 1 February 2019, UTM, along with two other political parties and an alliance of smaller political parties, held meetings with the intention of forming a united opposition.
The parties involved were the Alliance for Democracy (Aford), former Malawi President Joyce Banda’s Peoples Party, and the Tikonze People’s Movement led by former Vice President Cassim Chilumpha.
They reached an agreement to field one presidential candidate for the election. However, both Joyce Banda and Cassim Chilumpha later withdrew from the alliance, citing “disagreement with the selection of a presidential running mate for the candidate of the upcoming election” as their reason.
Also Read: Malawi Vice President Saulos Klaus Chilima Confirmed Dead
In the 2019 nullified election, Chilima, alongside Dr. Michael Usi as his running mate, secured third place with 20.24% of the popular vote, and UTM won 4 seats in the National Assembly.
However, the presidential election of 2019 was subsequently held again in 2020.
In the 2020 presidential election, Chilima ran as Lazarus Chakwera’s running mate for the Malawi Congress Party, forming the Tonse alliance, which brought together up to nine opposition political parties with the aim of toppling the Mutharika administration.
Saulos Chilima’s Achievements
He drove business growth from 357, 000 customers in 2006 to 2, 800,000 customers in December 2012 and improved employee satisfaction from 50 percent in 2006 to 80 percent in 2012 for Airtel Malawi.
The economist also Coordinated the successful rebranding of Celtel to Zain in 2008 as measured by total market awareness of 52% (as of April 2010) and mobilization of employee buy-in. Further successful transition from Zain to Airtel in November and living a positive impression on all stakeholders.
He also significantly contributed to the OPCO performance such that the company was awarded “OPCO of the Year 2008” as well as “Initiative of the Year” with the Quick Refill Centers (QRC) concept.
Additionally, he successfully steered the implementation of a unique and innovative outsource model in the telecoms space for Airtel Malawi in its Network, Call centre and IT departments while at the same time ensuring there was minimal or no disruption in the business operations.
On 22 June 2022, Chilima was stripped of his delegated powers as vice president due to his involvement in a $150 million (Ksh. 19,312,500,000) corruption scandal.
However, a Malawi court dropped the charges against him last month after the director of public prosecutions filed a notice to discontinue the case. Chilima has denied any wrongdoing.
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