The media reports that the Malawi government this week lost a landmark case many viewed as being politically motivated case against Ms. Cecilia Kumpukwe, sister to former president and People’s Party founder Dr. Joyce Banda, and other People’s Party (PP), Ackerson Kalaile Banda, Stella Assani, and Yesaya Mkawala. The court found the accused not guilty.
mid last year the State charged the PP officials with two counts of making a false document that contravenes Section 353 of the Penal Code, having been accused of publishing false information that could cause both fear and alarm among members of the Republic of Malawi. The later rightly also contravenes Section 60 (1) of the Penal Code.
The accused were arrested and accused of having penned a resignation letter purportedly written by Vice President Saulos Chilima. Granted this is a very damaging act; the law exists that punishes such acts.
However, apart from harassing the accused, the government represented by the prosecutor failed to give the case the serious attention it deserves.
We commend Lilongwe Senior Resident Magistrate (SRM) Chisomo Msokera in who in acquitting the accused charged the prosecution’s lack interest to commence trial coupled with lack of evidence.
This good news for the fake resignation letter saga who endured many months of harassment and being a pariah, comes on the heels of the news that former president Dr. Joyce Banda (also a pariah and in exile from her own country) has been vindicated.
In a press conference Malawi Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) director Reyneck Matemba, told a room full of journalists that his graft-busting agency is failing to find objective evidence linking former President Joyce Banda to cash gate during her tenure.
in the harassment and persecution of the former president, several cash gate convicts including Oswald Lutepo, and Leonard Kalonga testified against Dr. Banda.
Again, the plunder of Malawi’s cash-strapped coffers is not something we would scoff at, however the accusations levelled at the former president, the tormenting she has had to endure, is a slap on democracy’s face.
However, a forensic survey conducted by the British firm RSM (formerly Baker Tilly) was engaged by the Joyce Banda Administration following the near fatal shooting of the then Ministry of Finance budget director Paul Mphwiyo. findings were released in 2014.
We applaud Matemba for boldness and telling journalist in Blantyre on Thursday, and disclosed that the British firm never linked Banda to any corruption.
Regrettably, due to accusations and arm-twisting and jostling the guilty into throwing mud balls, the legacy of Malawi’s first female president and SADC’s first female chairperson, has profusely suffered a major set-back.
While we celebrate the freedom from blame of the “fake resignation letter writers,” and the exoneration of former president Dr. Joyce Banda, we must at the very outset chide, scold, reprimand and rebuke government and the men and women holding high offices to take of their cloaks and daggers of former holders of high office.
We remind all persons that are enjoying high political elected office or appointed officials, there was only one Life President in Malawi; that was the late Ngwazi Dr. Hastings Kamuzu Banda.
The sooner we get this in our collective hearts and minds, the sooner we will sincerely accept the plurality of our governing structures. We will then wholly adopt tolerance of diverse views, existence of all political parties and the right of every Malawian to live freely in our Malawi, without fear of being arbitrarily thrown in prison on trumped up charges.
Democracy in Malawi must not only appear to be, but must also be working for all persons in Malawi and especially the 17+ million Malawian citizens.
We call upon the state president Professor Arthur Peter Mutharika, and his representatives to respect the tenets of Malawi’s democratic culture. We implore him to realistically extend an olive branch to former president Dr. Joyce Banda.