Tag Archives: Leston Mulli.

Prayers provision vital for moral behaviours at work places

2021-01-06 Maravi Post Reporter

*Monsignor Dr Bornface Tamani talking to media after prayers*

By Paul Nsomba

BLANTYRE-(MaraviPost)-Entrepreneurs have been pleaded to regularly organize moments of prayers for their workers as the word say ‘ fearing of God is the beginning of everything ‘ and employees who lack consciousness at work are detrimental towards business development.

Vicar general of the Catholic congregation of the archdiocese of Blantyre Monsignor Dr. Bornface Tamani said this during prayers organized by Mulli Brothers Limited group of companies headquarter in Blantyre.

Monsignor Dr Tamani emphasized the need to put God first as a main principal in business transaction saying, inculcating the attitude of loving prayers among workers has a significant contribution and that employees.

The vicar general however rushed to caution entrepreneurs and the general public to be mindful of taking care resources for the future generation, saying , the ‘ old generation’ our old parents preserved resources which are currently used today to make ends meet hence the need to observe modalities of conserving our resources.

Answering on what the vicar general meant in his sermon asking government to equally award national contracts to local Malawian business people, Monsignor Dr Tamani said for the country to develop economically, government should distribute contracts to local business people regardless party lines, tribe or region the one comes from.

Speaking at the same ceremony spritual chaplain of Mulli Brothers Limited Reverend Dr. Billy Gama concured with Monsignor on the goodness to prioritize God in every way describing it as of Paramount importance to execute business with the fear of God.

“Yes we organized prayers because the leadership believes in God and every thing is possible with God’s hand. Every year in all companies and subsidiaries open the season with prayers. This is very important because there is always a spirit of relying God when we go back to respective work place.

“We prayed for the survival of the company during the previous year and we also prayed for the leadership and every member of the staff individually for keeping all the companies alive,” Reverend Dr Gama elaborated.

In his remarks,on the future of the business amid covid 19 escalation at the moment and paralyzed business operations the previous year, Mulli Brothers Limited director Leston Mulli encouraged his counterparts to always find alternative opportunities when such challenges emerge other than letting the business suffocate and die natural death.

In his closing speech, the director of Mulli Brothers Limited announced that every congregant take home a 50 kg bag of maize apart from receiving each a parcel of assorted items while choirs were added MK200,000:00 on top of MK50,000:00 each individual choir received

The prayers attracted choirs including Omba Lipenga, Mulanje Mission Praise Team, Heaven Door choir and Kachere Youth choir which sung soul soothing songs.

Mulli claims billions from Malawi Govt to finance the Mutharika-Atupele presidential campaign

2020-06-11 Patseni Mauka

While the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) apologists are busy criticizing a legitimate legal bill which Chakwera and Chilima lawyers are demanding from Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) after winning the 2019 presidential election case, DPP die-hard politician-cum-businessman Leston Mulli is claiming billions of Kwachas from an already dead treasury.

Of course you will not hear Atupele Muluzi, the DPP/UDF running mate, talking about this because his campaign is benefiting from the easy money.

A few weeks ago, Mulli, who is Mulli Brothers Company Managing Director, through two of his companies, Sunrise Pharmaceuticals and Chombe Foods Limited, askedfor over 11 billion Kwacha from the DPP government as compensation for damage of property and loss of business during the July 20 2011 demonstrations.

During that time, Malawians took to the streets in protests against the then President late Bingu Wa Mutharika, demonstrating against poor leadership, bad governance and nepotism.

On October 3, 2014 the High Court assessed the loss in the total sum of K3,048,557,708.71 [Three Billion Forty-Eight Million Five Hundred Fifty-Seven Thousand Seven Hundred and Eight Malawi Kwacha Seventy-One Tambala] and further loss of business was yet to be assessed or agreed by the parties. It must be noted that the High court awarded him the money in a default judgement.

Some time after that, former Attorney General Charles Mhango, a strong DPP member, dubiously authorized payment of MK3.1 billion compensation to the Leston Mulli-owned firms.

Mhango authorized the payment when his office was challenging the claims in the Supreme Court of Appeal, quite a strange phenomenon!

The interest of the attorney general should have been to vigorously protect government against such hefty claims for payment.

There was a chance that the government would have succeeded with the appeal at the Supreme Court.

By not protecting the government, Mhango showed that he had no interest of Malawi at heart.

Any reasonable person would suggest that President Mutharika, the Attorney General and Mulli benefited from the payment.

Otherwise, who in their right mind would just authorize such a huge payment without a fight?

The dubious payment wasdone when government is until now failing to collect MK4.9 billion in loans that Mulli-owned companies obtained from the defunct State-controlled Malawi Savings Bank (MSB).

Mulli was the largest beneficiary of the K6 billion toxic loans government took over from MSB, a then wholly State-owned commercial bank, sold in July 2015 to FDH Financial Holdings Limited.Mulli obtained MK4.9 billion from the bank while other firms owed over MK660 million.

It’s reported that four years after government set up the special recovery vehicle to collect the MK6 billion, no single tambala has been recovered.

After being paid the MK3.1 billion, Mulli is now claiming an additional K11 billion!

When asked about this new claim, Attorney General Kalekeni Kaphale, said, “we received the letter of demands and as government we are studying it.”

However, sources close to the matter say the payment was already processed.

This would not be surprising because Mulli, a DPP member was asking for the exorbitant payment from the DPP government through a fellow DPP supporter, Kalekeni Kaphale.

President Peter Mutharika is the leader of DPP, Leston Mulli is a DPP member and one of the financiers of DPP.

Former Attorney General Charles Mhango is also DPP member and serves as it’s legal adviser.

As DPP members, they have one common goal; to ensure that DPP continues ruling as it’s members continue getting stinking rich.

To continue ruling, they need to win elections. One of the necessary things they need to win an election is to have enough money for campaign.

If they lose the election, they will also need money, lots of it, because they will no longer have access to treasury.

It is only a fool who would think that Leston Mulli, a DPP financier, would claim billions of Kwachas from the DPP government without the approval of President Mutharika, the DPP presidential candidate.

Soon after the alleged MK11 billion payment, Mulli embarked on a serious campaign trip to the north.

He is obviously using the same money to campaign for DPP. These people are now employing mafia tactics to steal billions of tax payers money for campaign.

Now that they know their days in government are numbered, they have embarked on a stealing spree that is unprecedented in Malawi.

DPP thieves are working overtime to milk Malawi to death. They will never cease until Malawians take decisive action against them.

Otherwise, Malawi will one day wake up to an empty treasury. Vote these thieves out!

corruption, Law and order, Malawi

Leston Mulli’s MK3.1billion claim from Malawi Govt is fraud

2020-04-26 Maravi Post Reporter

BLANTYRE-(MaraviPost)-A source at the Malawi High Court has revealed that the MK3.1 billion which Leston Mulli was paid as award for damages that his companies, including Sunrise Pharmaceuticals, suffered in the rioting of July 2011, was a fraud because there was no judgment at the high court awarding him such money.

He said in 2013, High Court judge, the late Joseph Manyungwa awarded Mulli damages amounting to MK560 million after making assessments and finding the MK3.1 billion claim to be too exorbitant and exaggerated.

“Leston Mulli appealed this decision to the High Court but before a ruling was made on that appeal Judge Joseph Manyungwa died. When People’s party lost power to the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in 2014, Leston Mulli did not wait for judgment to delivered on his appeal but started pressurizing government to pay him his MK3.1 billion damages as though the appeal was successful and yet there was no judgment,” said the source.

The source added that if Mulli had to be given any money as damages, it should have been the MK560 million which was awarded by Judge Manyungwa not the MK3.1 billion because there was NO judgment to that effect.

“The 3.1 billion which Mulli took from government has no basis and it is pure theft of government money. The Attorney General must explain this serious anomaly and breach of government operating code by his office and Leston Mulli” added the source.

Initially government was reluctant to pay Mulli his compensation claim and it is believed that Kalekeni Kaphale, in his ‘first term of office’ as Attorney General refused to award the claim because it was deemed too exorbitant and not equivalent to the actual damages that his companies suffered.

A decision was only made this year to give Mulli the MK3.1 billion for political reasons after it emerged he was among the people that were propagating for the removal of Mutharika as Presidential candidate for DPP.

Opinion

DPP and Peter Mutharika acting like property grabbers

2018-10-25 Patseni Mauka 1 Comment

Mulli Brothers Limited (MBL)—whose managing director, Leston Mulli, is a known supporter and financier of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).

By Patseni Mauka

Sometime back, Malawi had a thriving Post Office Savings Bank. Many people used to bank with Post Office mainly because of its availability in most areas including rural. That was the time when many working people had a ‘bank book’. I remembered this because the bank book was a constant source of fights between relatives of a deceased husband and a surviving wife. The relatives would demand this book believing that the deceased husband left some money in a bank account.

In those days and I believe that’s the case until now, many people survived hand to mouth and didn’t keep significant money in accounts. Many people didn’t have any savings. As a result, those that were so determined to get the deceased relative’s bank book would be so disappointed to realize, after getting the book, that their relative died without any money. They would then go on to grab any household items from the surviving wife and kids, piling more misery on a family whose breadwinner was the dead father. That’s how cruel people were before a sensitization campaign against property grabbing minimized such occurrences.

Zameer Karim the kingpin of Malawi’s corruption

I am narrating this story because I believe President Peter Mutharika, his party the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), DPP politician-cum-business man Leston Mulli and DPP legal adviser who is also the current Malawi Attorney General, Charles Mhango are now acting like property grabbers who want to rip Malawi off by conniving to bring up billions of Kwachas claims against an already dead Malawi treasury. These people are now employing mafia tactics to steal billions of tax payer’s money. Now that they know their days in government are numbered, they have embarked on a stealing spree that is unprecedented in Malawi.

President Peter Mutharika is the leader of DPP, Leston Mulli is a DPP member and one of the financiers of DPP. Attorney General Charles Mhango is a DPP member and serves as its legal adviser. As DPP members, they have one common goal; to ensure that DPP continues ruling and of course continue getting stinking rich…

To continue ruling, they need to win the next elections. One of the necessary things they need to win an election is have enough money for campaign. If they lose an election, they will also need money, lots of it, because they will no longer have access to treasury. It is only a fool who would think that Leston Mulli, who just a few days ago was dancing lewdly with a young lady at Mlakho wa lomwe ceremony attended by President Mutharika would be claiming billions of Kwachas from government without the approval of the President.

Just six months ago, Attorney General Charles Mhango authorized payment of K3.1 billion compensation to Leston Mulli-owned firms. Mulli, through Sunrise Pharmaceuticals Limited and Chombe Foods Limited, sued government and claimed K3.1 billion as damages for losses during the July 20 2011 demonstrations in which 21 people were killed. The High court awarded him the money in a default judgement.

Dubiously, the Attorney General authorized the payment when his office was challenging the claims in the Supreme Court of Appeal. The interest of the attorney general should be to vigorously protect government against such hefty claims for payment. There was a chance that the government would have succeeded with the appeal at the Supreme Court. By not protecting the government, Mhango showed that he has no interest of Malawi at heart. Any reasonable person would suggest that President Mutharika, the Attorney General and Mulli benefited from the payment. Otherwise, who in their right mind would just authorize such a huge amount of money without a fight?

The dubious payment was done when government is failing to collect K4.9 billion in loans that Mulli-owned companies obtained from the defunct State-controlled Malawi Savings Bank (MSB). Mulli is the largest beneficiary of the K6 billion toxic loans government took over from MSB, a then wholly State-owned commercial bank, sold in July 2015 to FDH Financial Holdings Limited. Mulli obtained K4.9 billion from the bank while other firms owed over K660 million. It’s reported that three years after government set up the special recovery vehicle to collect the K6 billion, no single tambala has been recovered.

After being paid the 3.1 billion Kwacha, Mulli is now seeking an additional K8 billion, in civil case number 474 of 2012 before the High Court in Blantyre. The 8 billion Kwacha is what Mulli is calling interests on the 3.1 billion Kwacha already paid. The same Attorney General, who dubiously authorized payment of the first claim says will challenge the claim. What a joke!

If you think you have heard enough, hear this; six companies linked to businessperson Leston Mulli have filed a separate K270 billion compensation claim against the government! That amount is about 34% of Malawi’s entire 2014/15 national budget. The companies are seeking K270 billion as compensation for damages for loss of business. They claim that the order by then Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs Ralph Kasambara saw government departments stopping to trade with them. They add that the order also froze payments for previous contracts.

Former Minister of Justice and Attorney General in the PP administration, Ralph Kasambara, announced the ban on business dealings with Leston Mulli of MBL Holdings, saying the companies were “the subjects of criminal and tax evasion investigations.” He indicated that at that time overwhelming evidence had been unearthed supporting charges of corruption, money laundering and tax evasion. And who is going to defend government and Malawians in this 270 billion Kwacha case? You guessed right. The same compromised Attorney general, Charles Mhango!

Just in case you have forgotten, in the K2.7 billion Malawi Police Service (MPS) food rations scam, Mhango through his office volunteered to be third defendant in a private company case and went on to execute a consent order committing the Malawi Government to pay part of the sums supplier Pioneer Investments owed privately-owned CDH Investment Bank. This was despite the fact that government had already paid 2.7 billion Kwacha to Pioneer Investments and had no reason whatsoever to join a private case that would make taxpayers lose one billion Kwacha just because of Mhango’s and DPP’s shenanigans.

Part of these funds [about K145 million] from the Pioneer Investment deal ended in a Democratic Progressive Party bank account whose sole signatory is President Peter Mutharika. As another ‘thank you’, Zameer Karim of Pioneer Investments Limited bought five cars worth 85 million Kwacha and registered them in the name of President Peter Mutharika!

These property grabbers are working overtime to milk Malawi to death. They will never cease until Malawians take decisive action against them. Otherwise, Malawi will one day wake up to a bankrupt country. #MalawiVotes2019

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article are not necessarily the views of the Publisher or the Editor of Maravi Post

Malawi, Opinion, Politics

The tragi-comedy that is thrilling Chilima movement

2018-10-16 Maravi Post Author 3 Comments

Chilima looking drunk — Saulos Chilima and FireBrand Akweni Kailati

By Frank Kamanga

Chilima Movement’s collapse on popularity rankings has been too fast. Obituaries have already begun to be crafted. The only piece of plank the movement is hanging its life on is the decision by the courts on whether they can register their group as a political party. If the courts rejects them as did the Registrar of Political Parties, the fall will be too shattering.

But even if the court ruling favours them, the movement will be hardly out of the political wilderness. That is because getting registered is not their only serious nightmare. Already battered by leadership crisis, the levels of frustration and bitter quarrels in the group keep mounting at every strategy meeting.

This came to the fore again at a meeting which 16 senior members of the group held in Blantyre last week.

At that meeting, according to the minutes, there was finger-pointing, bitter quarrels over positions and a state of worsening confusion, frustration and hopelessness. Looking at the details, this was a tragi-comedy, perfectly so from a cast that is trying to claim to be politicians who should run the country.

Michalel Usi — Michael Usi, popularly known as Manganya

Michael Usi has no political worth. This is a well known truth. He himself knows this too. But he is popular as a comedian. And so he was told point blank by Richard Makondi that he keeps his comedy at the door.

Usi laid claim to running-mate on the grounds that he joined UTM with a constituency under his senselessly named group Wakudya Zake Alibe Mlandu. This group is a political nothing other than a gathering of actors in his comedy renditions.

In building his case on his group, Manganya, as Usi is popularly known in drama circles, sought to argue that he had brought people. To which Makondi rejoined that he should forget the running-mate on such grounds because his group was nothing but a drama group. And often a drama group does not have tens of people.
That even a man of as little political consequence as Usi should lay claim to as huge a role as runningmate underlines the critical shortage of quality in UTM. Just why they think they can run the complex business of a government is hard to fathom.

Nor has Newton Kambala any political advantage. The United Transformation Party (UTP) leader attended the meeting and he too made his bargain, the minutes show. His joker card is that he has a registered political party which UTM would use to ease past registration hurdles.

But Kambala is hardly likely to get his way. The founding members of UTM have told him before that they are the ones that deserve the running mate role and not a newcomer that he is. They told him the same thing at the Wednesday meeting.

In the end, UTM is a mad house. Rudderless, disagreeing on everything, their hearts sunk on their lack of substantial popular appeal, Chilima Movement has lived up to its expectation as an amorphous heap of confused and frustrated people.

Even worse is that instead of looking into their own deficiencies to find solutions to the crisis they are stuck in, they are devoting themselves to finding external scapegoats for their woes.

Patricia Kaliati blamed her nightmares in her constituency in Mulanje on business magnate Leston Mulli. She reported that Mulli has distributed motorcycles to people that have been pillars of her powers in the constituency where she is MP in Mulanje. She therefore told the meeting that she would launch a vengeance plan where she would spread a rumour that Mulli is a Satanic.

This has been Chilima style. He has been creating one plot after another against President Mutharika, hoping this would shed off the President’s popularity for them to gain it. So far these schemes have failed to damage Mutharika and the DPP. They have yielded UTM nothing but shame and pain.

As it is, riveted by internal wrangling, weighed down by critical deficiencies and without a proper agenda for the nation, UTM’s collapse is well and truly assured. It is a matter of time, probably a short while from now, that this tragi-comedy comes to an ignominous end.