Joyce Banda’s attack against His Excellency State President and the Democratic Progressive Party in the Nation Newspaper of 29th December 2015 is a statement full of deceit and is a moral outrage. If she still has any moral integrity left in her mind, she cannot be at peace with her God.
Senzani stated in her sworn testimony that it was Joyce Banda (JB) who instructed Ministers to raise money for her Peoples’ Party. She did not say that the instructions were given at a Cabinet meeting.
Shamefully, Joyce Banda is now distorting this story. She claims that no Cabinet Meeting discussed this issue. In that case, she argues that she did not give such instructions as if the instructions could only be given at a Cabinet Meeting. This is dishonest and crooked logic. The fact is that she gave the instructions at a meeting of an inner and trusted circle of some Cabinet Ministers, Senior Party officials, and a close confidante.
This story was first revealed to us by CCJP in the media soon after Cashgate was exposed. It was at this meeting where JB was advised to hire Paul Mphwiyo as the new Budget Director so that he could properly implement the Cashgate scheme, and that was the genesis of Cashgate.
In addition to CCJP, there are several Cashgate suspects who have subsequently implicated JB in court and elsewhere.
They have boldly stated that she was the main beneficiary of Cashgate funds. We will not say more on these specifics now because these matters are in court.
We are however very surprised that JB seems to bury her head in the sand and pretend that it is only Senzani who has mentioned her name in this despicable atrocity against Malawians.
Immediately after Mphwiyo was shot, JB voluntarily told the nation that she knew who did it and why. She has kept silent on this subject since that comment. It is however clear after the court revelations of the key role that Mphwiyo played in Cashgate, that the JB’s statement on the shooting was an unsolicited confession of her hidden role in Cashgate.
In fact, she once stated at a press conference that it was alright for her to receive stolen money from Cashgate convict Lutepo because she, herself had not stolen any money. Joyce Banda should not take Malawians for fools. They demand explanations. For instance why is she not helping the course of justice in the courts on Mphwiyo’s shooting since she knows the full story?
JB has been in Government as Minister, Vice President and State President. She has also been in senior positions of ruling parties, i.e. UDF, DPP and PP, such as Party President, Secretary General, and other executive positions. She must know that Governments and ruling parties can get any information and relevant intelligence. It is therefore most dishonest for her to state or think that the DPP Government has failed to find out the atrocities she inflicted on Malawians.
This is crooked disinformation and she is now behaving like a cornered mouse. She knows that the Government has a lot of solid information against her schemes including Cashgate. Many will be surprised if she continues to evade prosecution much longer. However, Government will not rush in bringing her to book for her role in the scam and neither will the law enforcement officers be deterred in methodically investigating her role.
The good lawyers quoted in the Nation newspaper of 29th December 2015 gave her kind and free advice. They wondered why she does not consult. They feared that “she risks exposing herself to prosecutory scrutiny if she continues to defend herself in public on Cashgate allegations.” They advised her to wait for scrutiny of evidence from Senzani and others in court which will be the smarter way and place for her to clear her name. These legal experts must know that court appearances for Joyce Banda are now inevitable.
JB is clearly a fugitive who has fled from justice in Malawi. If not, we challenge her to return home immediately to face Senzani in court, and other Cashgate suspects who have corroborated her story. Her Peoples’ Party is in serious leadership crisis but she is afraid to come back to deal with it.
She has been out of the country now for more than 15 months because, she claims that there is no house suitable for an ex-President in Malawi. She has turned down ten houses, one after another from Government. She refuses Government’s offer to have her family or even herself to come and identify the house of her taste. In any case, she could have been waiting in her own houses here while the Government’s search for a suitable mansion continues.
15 months of living abroad is expensive. If she is not living on Cashgate money she must reveal the sources of her money. Ironically, she instead wants His Excellency the State President to reveal the source of his declared wealth. That is laughable. She now wants to divert the public attention on her criminal refuge abroad by blowing up baseless attacks against the State President and his Government.
Out of the blue, and long after the event, she has decided to champion Ligomeka’s story that he helped the DPP to rig the 2014 Elections. Strangely, JB demands a response from the State President to “Ligomeka’s important accusations” whom he does not even know. If his allegations are real, why is he bringing them now in the media and not to the Police, Court, or Malawi Electoral Commission in mid-2014? This is simply one of JB’s absurd schemes. How can the DPP which was in Opposition, rig the PP Government with all the public resources, and vast Cashgate funds out of power in an election?
JB issued a decree to nullify the Election Results as soon as she knew she had lost. She shamelessly ordered a rerun where she would not contest because “she is not greedy.” That was blatantly criminal and a constitutional absurdity. There can be no presidential immunity on this if anyone was to pursue that criminality in a court of law. Strangely, she still harbours her delusions of kicking DPP out of Government, this time using Ligomeka. This is a pathologic quest for power and cannot work.
As if this is not enough mental disorder, she is also trying to demonize and discredit the DPP Government over the MK577 billion scandal. JB was the Vice President (3 years) and State President (2 years) during this scandal. It is stated in this report that MK357 billion occurred during her two years that she was president. She did nothing about it. She now puts the whole blame on His Excellency the State President who was only a Cabinet Minister and an Opposition MP throughout this scandal period. She even states that her two years as President were DPPs term that she completed. Hence her PP cannot be party to the scandal! This is dishonest, crooked and most futile political crafting.
Joyce Banda should wait for the forensic audit results before she continues her unwarranted self-righteous outbursts on this financial scandal. His Excellency Prof Arthur Peter Mutharika and his current DPP Government have nothing to fear or hide and their consciences are clear. That is why the current Government has sanctioned and cooperated with the auditors in the current investigation.
The forensic audit involves donors for credibility and expertise. She knows that these processes and procedures take time. Her notion that donors are not happy with lack of progress on this and other donor conditionality’s has no basis. The cordial dialogue continues between Government and Development Partners. There are countless donor-funded projects in every sector in government. The donors actually only withdrew from Budget Support because of JB’s Cashgate scheme.
JB should stop crafting her statements in such a way as to discourage the donors from continuing their work in Malawi. Government is doing its best to return the economy back on track, but she offers no single constructive advice whatsoever in this regard.
She ignores the ravages that her own atrocities have brought to the Malawi’s economy. Apart from this massive Cashgate, she sold the presidential jet and lied to the nation that she would use the proceeds to buy maize for hungry Malawians. Up to now, no one knows where the money is and how much she got. She got Malawi into a big debt of questionable legality to get military equipment from Paramount Group in South Africa. The DPP Government is now struggling to pay back that debt. Yet at one time she said that the proceeds from the sale of the jet were used to offset this loan.
She cancelled the contracts of the existing fertilizer suppliers when she got into power but re-engaged the very same suppliers for the FISP Programme and additional Fertilizer Loan Scheme.
Her Government did not pay these suppliers. It is the current DPP Government which has been forced to pay these suppliers as part of our agreement with our Development Partners. Such payments are part of what has contributed to a large debt portfolio, in the process getting our economy off-track. The list of the irregularities in JB’s Government goes on and on. JB would be better off keeping quiet on the economic front as well, lest she risks exposing more of her own rot in the nation’s economic troubled waters being assured that Government will not waiver on its commitment for tight and prudent spending. To this effect, Government will continue to rationalize spending by committing resources to only those matters that attend to the needs of the people of Malawi.
