LILONGWE-(MaraviPost)-After appointing 12 high court judges in October 2020 the President Lazarus Chakwera has also appointed seven new High Court Judges.
New faces including Patrick Chirwa (pictured) who currently serves as Chief Resident Magistrate in Lilongwe, Gladys Gondwe who is Registrar of High Court and Supreme Court of Appeal, and former Director of Public Prosecutions Bruno Kalemba.
Patrick Chirwa appointed as judge
Chimbigzani Kacheche, Dick Sankhulani, Rosemary Kayira and Gloria Nomonde are the others.
Chief Justice Rizine Mzikamanda has confirmed the appointments, saying the new judges will help resolve issues of backlog of cases and delays.
Onjezani Kenani social commentator has since welcomed the promotion of Chirwa.
“As magistrate, he has always been known for dispensing justice without fear or favour. It’s great that people like him are recognized by being awarded higher posts,” Kenani wrote on Facebook.
Since he was elected in 2020, the president has also been talking about plans to establish a Financial Crimes Court to fast-track prosecution of financial crime cases.
Doreen Kapanga: suspected to have siphoned money from public purse
BLANTYRE-(MaraviPost)—The Lilongwe Chief Resident Magistrate’s Court has today given a nod to restart hearing a 2016 case involving former Malawi deputy ambassador to Ethiopia, Doreen Kapanga and former secretary for administration and finance Fletcher Chowe.
The two are being accused of siphoning K293 million ($409 790) out of the public purse and depositing the money into their personal accounts.
Kapanga’s lawyer, Khumbo Soko, today made an application asking the court to have the state witnesses recalled and examined by the new presiding Magistrate Patrick Chirwa who took over the case from Violet Chipao now judge of the High Court.
One witness had already testified and a second witness was expected to conclude testifying.
Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) Steven Kayuni earlier objected to the request by the defence arguing that the matter has dragged for long and needs to be disposed.
The state is expected to parade six witnesses and one of the witnesses is based in Ethiopia.
The court has set 4th- 5th August 2021 to restart the hearing.
Fiscal Police arrested Kapanga and Chowe in 2016 and they were released on bail few days after the arrest.
An investigative audit into the plunder of resources at Malawi Embassy in Ethiopia revealed that K293 million was siphoned out of the public purse and deposited into personal accounts.
Before her appointment to Ethiopia, Kapanga was a Deputy Inspector General of Police.
BLANTYRE-(MaraviPost)–Chief Resident Magistrate Patrick Chirwa has dismissed the application by the State to have witnesses of the South African government in the Prophet Shepherd Bushiri’s extradition case testify virtually.
Chirwa has ruled that there is no legal basis for the Magistrate Court to allow such to happen, adding that the court has limited power derived from the statues.
Further, he says the order remains clear and mandatory that the witnesses should be brought into the country to give their testimony physically.
Chirwa says the reasons that were stated in the application by the state were mere speculative.
Last month, the Magistrate ordered that South Africa should send witnesses to testify under oath in Malawi and share all evidence of their allegations.
BLANTYRE-(MaraviPost)—Chief Resident Magistrate Patrick Chirwa has finally granted bail to 16 DODMA officials who were arrested over the abuse of K4.6 million Covid-19 funds.
The suspects re-applied for bail after the expiry of seven days that the Court gave to the State to conclude investigations.
In granting bail, Chirwa said the court is satisfied with the application by the defence.
The State did not object to the bail application but asked the Court to use its discretion to give strict bail conditions so that the suspects are able to honour court proceedings.
The officials include the department’s deputy director Mr Fyawupi Mwafongo, DODMA Public Relations Officer Mr Chipiliro Khamula and 14 others.
The K6.2 billion Covid-19 money caused a storm after it was learnt that over 80 per cent of the money went into allowances for officials instead of fighting Covid-19.
Mwafongo was charged with abuse of office where particulars stated that he authorized an amount over K4 million to be used as allowances and when asked he failed to account for it.
The second charge is theft by public servant and this applies on all the 16 where the particulars are that the 16 received allowances worth k4, 250, 000 for attending a meeting in Mponera at Linde motel for two days and failed to account for it.
BLANTYRE-(MaraviPost)—Sixteen officials from the Department of Disaster Management Affairs (Dodma) who were arrested for alleged abuse of K4.6 million Covid-19 funds have been denied bail.
Lilongwe Chief Resident Magistrate, Patrick Chirwa, said the State needs more time to investigate the matter.
The court has given the State seven more days to investigate the matter.
The State asked to have the suspects remanded for 14 days so that it concludes the investigations arguing that the matter in question is a serious and complex case.
The officials who were arrested this week for allegedly abusing part of K6.2 billion Covid-19 money.
The officials include the department’s deputy director Mr Fyawupi Mwafongo, DODMA Public Relations Officer Mr Chipiliro Khamula and 14 others.
The K6.2 billion Covid-19 money caused a storm after it was learnt that over 80 per cent of the money went into allowances for officials instead of fighting Covid-19.
Mwafongo has been charged with abuse of office where particulars states that he authorized an amount over K4 million to be used as allowances and when asked he failed to account for it.
The second charge is theft by public servant and this applies on all the 16 where the particulars are that the 16 received allowances worth k4, 250, 000 for attending a meeting in Mponera at Linde motel for two days and failed to account for it.
Zambian criminals: To serve jail sentence in Malawi
Three Zambians, including an army captain from the Zambian Defence Force, were each sentenced to 40 months (3 years 4 months) in prison in Malawi Friday after they were convicted of wildlife trafficking.
The three, Captain Sandu Kalimbo, 44 from Sanjangu, John Sakala, 30, from Kanjala, and Ronald Mawale, 44, from Mtete were arrested on 2nd September 2016 in the Malawian border town of Mchinji after being found in possession of three raw elephant tusks and complete leopard and lion skins.
The artefacts were reportedly poached from animals from South Luangwa National Park in Zambia.
The case was brought to court on 5th September, where all three men faced charges of illegal possession of specimens of protected species and dealing in government trophies.
All three men were found guilty by Patrick Chirwa of the Lilongwe Magistrate Court and sentenced to 40 months imprisonment with hard labour with no option of a fine.
The Police expressed satisfaction with the sentence and also the cooperation with outside partners in prosecuting serious wildlife cases cases.
Assistant Superintendent from National Police Headquarters Prosecutions Office, Saddry Sambo, said the case was the first under a public-private litigation project.
Said Sambo: ‘’This is the first concluded case which falls under a newly funded public-private litigation project for serious wildlife crime cases. We are very encouraged with the result which shows the determination of the government authorities to combat wildlife crime.”
On its part, Lilongwe Wildlife Trust, who are a key partner with government in fighting wildlife crime in Malawi, said it was pleasing to note that cooperation with government is bearing fruits.
Tommy Mhango, a senior official working for the Trust said: “This is a great example of where new Malawian initiatives to tackle wildlife crime are having an impact. In this case wildlife crime investigators and prosecutors worked hand in hand to put three significant wildlife traffickers behind bars. It is also encouraging to see that magistrates, in this case His Worship, Patrick Chirwa, are taking a strong stance against these serious organised crimes.”
Malawi apart from suffering from poachers is also used as a smuggling route by poachers to the outside world.
Recently Malawi Government burned hordes of ivory in a bold statement to the global world of its commitment in fighting wildlife crime and President Arthur Peter Mutharika appeared in multimedia messages speaking against poaching and general wildlife crime.
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