Analysis by: Lucy Banda
Ruling parties in Malawi have been very articulate in the anti-corruption pledges and public rhetoric as per their election manifesto as well Presidential commitment to zero tolerance against graft, corruption and racket but what happens in truth is just pure opposite.
It is clear now that coronavirus mayhem and crisis has created another chapter in the corruption sector. We have seen how 6.2 billion kwacha COVID-19 funds plunder report has shocked the nation.
Even in the office of the President, tenders were done “at night” for fumigation. But top managers in the office are still enjoying immunity from the ruling party.
Most powerful and unscrupulous people in the ruling party have taken the crisis as a chance to abuse power and increase their income wealth illicitly. We have all seen it with our naked eyes.
As reports are emerging how and why ombudsman Martha Chizuma was rejected by PAC as ACB Director where she scored 1/25 and others members gave her 25/25, we are learning that two key Ministers connived with the members of the Parliamentary Committee not to approve her name because their hands are “full of sins” following the wealth they have gotten in less than a year in office.
Reports further indicate these two ministers got their money from “amwenye’ which these ministers shared with members of PAC including MCP ones who got away with 4 million kwacha in Lilongwe at a dinner that was held in area 9. These are just reports with no evidence.
But bare in minds that politics does not need evidence to prove a case beyond reasonable doubt but you can easily infer to make a conclusion based on that.
Further to that also remember for someone to prove corruption crime, it is very difficult because money change hands in different forms. The reports that have floored social media that DPP members who are in minority in that PAC panel are the ones which sabotaged the appointment of Martha Chizuma as ACB Director are just not laughable but childish
The President himself knows that DPP members are only five and the rest are from his ruling party and independents who support his government agenda in Parliament. That must tell you something. Martha has been rejected by MCP and not UTM, DPP, and UDF.
Mr President, if you continue to believe “arm chair presidency”, your five year term shall be a barren as Sahara desert and Malawians will never forgive you to offer you another term because you are a pastor. It is well known factor that chief cause of corruption is the disparity, social and economic seen among people and their communities.
But a strong leadership, improved institutional quality and an emphasis on having a modern and responsible country is possible if President Chakwera can discipline and axe his ” mafia- monster ministers ” who are terrorising our taxes at speed of sound.
Just imagine Mr President, your own cabinet ministers bribing members of PAC to disqualify your appointee behind your back. Unfortunately you roared in anger in Parliament during SONA. I can challenge you sir that don’t believe in the motion that was tabled in Parliament that day before you opened Parliament. Typical of professor Arthur Peter Mutharika leadership style, president chakwera is depending on an Intel that is littered with mud of corruption scandals.
The Intel reports to you what pleases you and the best intelligence is reported to your own trusted ministers who are behind Chizuma’s rejection. Mr President corruption is in your house. Mr President corruption is in your office. Mr President corruption is amongst your most trusted ministers who continue to plunder each and every penny of Malawians whose lives are on “life support machine” at the moment since you took over power.
If you are not going to fire these two powerful (Prime Ministers)in your next cabinet reshuffle, the country will never forgive you for protecting your political future than curing the cancer that keeps on robing poor people their rights to economic development.
The best approach for the President to win corruption is not giving us a woman or man or continue changing laws. It is by promoting active participation of individuals and groups outside the public sector such as civil society organizations, nongovernmental organizations and community-based organizations, in the prevention of and fight the corruption pandemic head on.
If we can attack corruption as country, the poverty levels in this country will go down because basic needs will be available to the poor and developments shall flourish but with those two “crocodile ministers”, the vision 2063 is shattered at Chakwera’s doorstep.
I, therefore, register to you that Martha Chizuma has been denied a chance to serve in that ACB office by your own cabinet ministers and not opposition members. Fix your Intel and you shall see what is in darkness.
