ACB’s Chizuma given 14 days to resign for “favoring” Kapondamgaga

By IOMMIE CHIWALO

BLANTYRE-(MaraviPost)-Centre for Democracy and Economic Development Initiatives (CDEDI) has given Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) Director General 14 days to resign immediately for failure to exercise professionalism in the constitutionally established office.

In a letter signed by CDEDI Executive Director Sylvester Namiwa and made available to this publication, says the way ACB has handled the matter involving State House Chief of Staff Prince Kapondamgaga, Malawians do not see the need to report corruption anymore.

But defends the move saying Kapondamgaga paid the money back and that is committed to being a state witness in the matter involving Billionaire Zunneth Sattar.

However, Namiwa says Malawians were shocked by the statement from the graft-bursting body since it signified the lowest moment ever as a country in the fight against corruption.

He says the decision by ACB took most people that joined the protests to have Chizuma confirmed on the position of the Director General for the ACB by surprise as they never anticipated that the ACB would go down to such levels with her at the helm of office.

“We at the CDEDI, could not believe that you really sanctioned the aforementioned statement, hence our patience, as we were waiting for your reaction on the matter, since we perceive you as a fierce fighter against corruption, the very vice that has plunged this country and its innocent citizens into biting poverty on one hand, while the perpetrators are living in a wonderland, on the other hand.

“We strongly believed that you were forced to act and hoped that at an opportune time, you would eventually speak out or at least honorably resign for letting down the very same people that fought for you,” reads the letter.

The demands by CDEDI are credited to how ACB has conducted similar cases where the amount of money involved was disclosed but that is not the case in the matter of Kapondamgaga.

For instance, Namiwa has given an example of the arrest of Group Village Head Mwawa for receiving MK54,000 from 26 2022/2023 Affordable Inputs Program (AIP) beneficiaries.

As if that is not enough, on March 21, 2023, the ACB also issued a Press Statement informing Malawians that it had managed to secure a conviction of one Magret Mbandambanda, a police officer under the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) for Limbe police station, who was arrested for receiving MK100,000 in order to grant bail to a suspect.

“What is clear in these statements is that the ACB openly declared the amounts of money involved in the two cases, but the same bureau has suddenly become dumb to reveal what else Kapondamgaga has handed over to the ACB, apart from the Mercedes Benz,” he narrates.

Adding that since all the two cases cited above-involved money, CDEDI is failing to understand why the ACB failed to give the other two an option of giving back the money they were suspected to have received, just like the way Kapondamgaga was accorded the opportunity by the very same bureau to give back the car and the other undisclosed stuff.

“One would be forced to think that the two women were treated by the ACB as such because they are not connected to the political elite, and by extension, we can construe that the fight against corruption is merely a fight against the poor since the establishment of the bureau, we have never reached this low!” he said.

CDEDI demands are further necessitated by ACB’s deafening silence on the infamous MK250 Billon East Bridge fertilizer deal.

According to Namiwa, the ACB’s conduct on the matter is not only disturbing but also gives credence to speculations that Chizuma has resigned to fate and that she is just waiting to leave office upon the expiry of her contract in June 2024.

“It is against this background that CDEDI, on behalf of well-meaning Malawians, writes you to immediately resign in order to save your integrity and at the same time save our taxes,” dares CDEDI.