MZUZU-(MaraviPost)-The outcome of the virtually week long announcement of the ruling of one Malawi’s business mogul Dr Thom Mpinganjira’s alleged Constitutional Court judges bribery case by Judge Dorothy De Gabriella, produced a promising breed on Friday last week.
Most definitely, keen followers of the matter went home and took a cup of whatever they always take with a brand new ray of hope for the country insofar as combating high profile corruption cases and the reputation of courts and their speed on dealing with such matters is concerned.
When Judge De Gabriella concluded her ruling on the case, it became an open secret that Dr. Mpinganjira had pulled the tail of a sleeping lion from its socket; and so the lion had every reason to attack. And since it was provoked, let it now maraud mercilessly.
It was in 2019 when the current Head of State, Dr Lazarus Chakwera and his vice, Dr Saulos Chilima, took the results of the year’s presidential polls to court protesting that the same were marred with numerous irregularities, and so the court had to order a fresh version of the constitutional exercise.
In no time, the court really found the results of the polls wanting and quickly constituted a five member panel of judges to review the results in a constitutional court. It was, thus, during the determination of this matter that Dr Mpinganjira allegedly went to town with his fat wallet to shop the judges’ intelligence in favour of the then clueless ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).
He purportedly planned to execute the master plan by calling one of the judges and hold talk with him at a dark corner whence the K100 million contents of the wallet would be shared equally among the five of them. This was probably where the whole plan turned into a fiasco. The presumably smartest judge whom Dr Mpinganjira approached spilled the beans instead of saving them. Mpinganjira was then in for it. It was this arguably simple start of events that has led to the whole matter: Mphuno salota!
The matter is now finalised. The nation is only waiting with bated breath for Judge De Gabriella to determine for how many years should Mpinganjira languish behind bars as a reward for his selfish intentions to drag the whole country into the fangs of the then miserable ruling DPP and its machinations. Shame!
At least for now, the country needs a therapy more than ever before. Let the court vindicate itself now that it is a self reforming institution which Malawians should trust further that it truly represents fairness and justice regardless of the political, economic or social status of who the criminal standing in the dork.
For sometime now, Malawians have lost their trust in the judicial system because the judges are also well known to be another corrupt lot that plays the dirt under the sheet and look clean on the street. And surely, part of evidence on this is the confidence and courage Dr. Mpinganjira had in trying to bend the reasoning of the judges in the 2019 presidential case with his enticement. He surely believed it was a possible deal; bearing in mind that the culture of corruption was conspicuous on the men in wigs.
The conclusion of the matter in question is a pacesetter as regards corruption cases in Malawi; in which cases of such big fish seems to be infinite at the expense of the country’s crawling economy and the continued suffering of Malawians.
It is so reassuring that the matter has taken a shorter period of time as compared to other corruption related cases of other kingpins which run for ages without even being concluded; jeopardising the standards of justice and draining hope of Malawians.
Now that the court has raised the bar to this far, let justice go far and wide and bring all other corrupt kingpins down to face it. I mean, for long how shall the country be haven to a few privileged while the majority of Malawians wallow in abject poverty induced by others?
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