By Debra Rono
On Tuesday, June 11th, 2024, Malawi President Lazarus Chakwera made the announcement that the country’s Vice President, Saulos Klaus Chilima had tragically lost his life in a plane crash that took place in Chikwangwa forest.
“I am deeply saddened to inform you all, that it has turned out be a terrible tragedy, the search and the rescue team has found the aircraft near a hill in the Chikangawa forest and they have found it completely destroyed, with no survivors as all passengers on board were killed on impact,” said the President.
Saulos Chilima was inaugurated as the Vice President of Malawi on May 30th, 2024, during the tenure of former President Peter Mutharika.
On June 28th, 2020, Dr. Chilima was sworn in for his second term as Vice President of the Republic of Malawi under President Lazarus Chakwera.
Prior to his decade-long term as Vice President of Malawi, Dr. Chilima made history as the first Malawian to lead Airtel Malawi, the prominent mobile telecommunications company in the southern African nation.
During his time there, Dr. Chilima oversaw significant business growth, increasing the customer base from 357,000 in 2006 to 2,800,000 by December 2012.
He also enhanced employee satisfaction levels from 50 percent in 2006 to 80 percent in 2012 at Airtel Malawi.
Additionally, he played a key role in the successful rebranding of Celtel to Zain in 2008, followed by another successful transition from Zain to Airtel in November, leaving a positive impact on all stakeholders, among other notable achievements.
Before delving into the telecommunications sector, Dr. Saulos Chilima held senior sales and marketing positions at companies such as Unilever and Coca-Cola.
He held a PhD in Knowledge Management from the University of Bolton.
Following his tenure as Vice President in President Mutharika’s administration, Dr. Chilima established his own political party, the United Transformation Party.
He ran for the presidency in 2019 and secured third place.
In the historic 2020 re-run, he joined forces with Lazarus Chakwera as his running mate, leading to their victory in the election re-run.
Despite being recognized as a performer and a workaholic, Dr. Chilima found himself embroiled in a corruption scandal, a stark contrast to his stance against corruption during President Mutharika’s rule.
In 2022, Saulos Chilima was arrested on bribery charges, which were eventually dropped in 2024.
Dr. Chilima was born on February 12, 1973 and leaves behind his wife Mary and two children, Sean and Elizabeth.