Joyce Banda who has been globetrotting for the last 90 days has to know for the case to go forward she has to show up somewhere for court. Many Malawians are excited to get an inkling as to the where abouts of the former President of Malawi. As to the article reported by Malawi daily times here goes:
Former president Joyce Banda from somewhere on earth has given a South African newspaper The Times, until Christmas Day to apologise to her personally and carry out an unconditional retraction for publishing a story on December 9 that there was a warrant of arrest over her head due to her connection to ‘cashgate’.
The story also indicated that there was CCTV footages of corruption that emerged from State House when Banda was still president of Malawi
On Thursday this week her lawyer Caroline Phatswane wrote the newspaper that as a result of ‘false and irresponsible’ reporting Banda, together with the Joyce Banda Foundation International (JBFI) which she founded and now chairs, have been under severe strain.
Phatswane, who is JBFI Company Secretary and Legal Advisor at its South African office, adds that this strain is coming in as they are trying to dismiss the lies’ published to their donors and sponsors.
“False reporting of this magnitude affects the operation of the foundation, partnership and, more importantly, the reputation of the former president Dr. Banda,” says Phatswane in the letter that Malawi News has seen.
She says it is the intention of the foundation and Banda to try and resolve this matter amicably and, therefore, they demand that the newspaper writes a letter of apology addressed personally to Banda for ‘reckless and defamatory’ reports published.
The former president also wants The Times to publish a written unconditional retraction for the malicious, false allegations reported against her within seven days of receipt of the letter.
“We expect the retraction to receive the same prominence as the original article,” reads the letter which The Times editor confirmed receipt.
“Failure to retract the said article will leave us with no option but to explore other remedies without any further communication to you,” says Phatswane in the letter.
The letter, which indicates that it is from their South African address in Fourways in Johannesburg, faults the story which was titled ‘Joyce Banda fingered in ‘Cashgate’ Scandal’ written by the newspaper’s Malawian reporter Ulemu Teputepu.
“We wish to point out from the onset that we do not intend to deal with each and every unfounded allegations made and published in the above mentioned article and failure to do so should not be construed as an admission of the same in any way whatsoever, and we reserve our right to deal with same at the appropriate forum and time should the need arise,” states the letter.
Phatswane goes on to explain why they are dismissing the said allegations as ‘malicious, unfounded and defamatory’.
“In the presidential tenure of Dr. Banda and the late president Bingu wa Mutharika there were no CCTV fitted in State House of Malawi, and no proof of such footages have since emerged from any reliable source,” she argues.
She further says the Judiciary in Malawi is currently on strike and have been for the past month, if there was any warrant of arrest to be issued, she says, it would have been from the courts.
“However, when we approached the courts in Malawi, they seem to have no knowledge of any warrant of arrest issues against Dr. Banda and have further distance themselves from the article published by your publication,” she says.
Adds Phatswane: “The Baker Tilly Forensic report was done independently by an international audit firm that was funded by the British Government, according to this report, all those that stole money and those who benefitted are in that report. Anything else outside this report is politics and attempts to assassinate Dr. Banda’s character.”
Therefore, Phatswane says, while Teputepu enjoys the latitude of freedom of press, the allegations he reported on clearly crossed the line from reporting fair comment and news to defamation and character assassination.
“Even as Dr. Banda is public figure, she is still entitled to be respected and equally enjoy her right to dignity. It is clear that in this reporting, Mr. Teputepu portrayed a ‘reckless disregard for the truth’ or ‘malice’ and his actions can be subjected to litigation,” she says.
Phatswane claims that the article suggests that Banda has acted fraudulently and will be prosecuted.
“When Dr. Banda called the reporter in question for an explanation to his article, he (Mr Teputepu), by his own admission, admitted to reporting false hearsay and rendered an apology on the phone which is not sufficient to mitigate the damage caused by the article,” she says.
