On Tuesday this week Maravi post and other online media run with the story that indicated, nephew to former President, Joyce Banda, had been arrested in relation to a robbery of close to K50 million at Petroda Headquarters in Lilongwe last week.
The nephew, Peter Kadawati, was picked at his residence in Blantyre for questioning after his identity card was found in the runaway vehicle that the robbers used and later abandoned at Chitukuko roundabout from where they hijacked a passenger minibus.
The Maravi Post was indeed correct to report that Mr. Peter Kadawati had been arrested and this was easily verified when we placed a call to our sources in the police department.
However things became very dicey when we went out of our way to tie Peter Kadawati to former President Joyce Banda. The article indicated that
31 year old Kadawati is very close to the former President Joyce Banda and worked for Joyce Banda Foundation International (JBFI) as Programmes Manager for many years. He was fired from his job in 2014 after misappropriating donor funds at the foundation.
As proof we run the story with a picture of Joyce Banda attending Peter Kadawati wedding. Joyce Banda in her life has attended many weddings and the picture had nothing to do with the crimes Kadawati was accused by police of committing.
The fact that Peter Kadawati worked for Joyce Banda at some time in the past does not mean his criminal activities are now directed by the Former President. We should have been more careful in our reporting as there is no shred of evidence tying Joyce Banda to Kadawati in this matter.
It was a leap of faith trying to rope former President Joyce Banda.
