While efforts are being done to alleviate the suffering of people affected by the damage caused by heavy rains in Mangochi, Deputy Minister Ralph Jooma, a parliamentarian from the district, is hiding at his lodge a total of 500 tents which well-wishers have been donating for the cause.

Jooma has been discovered after people close to him revealed to district authorities that the deputy minister was keeping the humanitarian tents at his lodge after noticing that the authorities were making fresh pleas for more tents, citing shortages.

When the authorities queried Jooma, he said he was not hiding the tents but that he just wanted to be making the distributions himself.