The Centre for Democracy and Economic Development Initiatives (CDEDI) Executive Director Sylvester Namiwa has given the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) Director Martha Chizuma a 14-day ultimatum to resign.
The call comes after ACB exercised prosecutorial discretion not to lay criminal charges against State House Chief of Staff Prince Kapondamgaga after he surrendered a Mercedes Benz he received businessperson Zunneth Sattar.
“After a review of the evidence against Mr Kapondamgaga in this case, evaluation of the information he provided in respect of the broader investigations relating to Zuneth Sattar and the restitution agreement he has voluntarily entered with the Bureau, a prosecutorial discretion has been exercised not to lay criminal charges against him. Accordingly, the Bureau has completed and closed the investigations against him. Pursuant to its powers under Section 10 (4) of the Corrupt Practices Act,” said ACB in a Statement released early this month
However, Namiwa said Malawians were shocked with the announcement which “in fact, it is the lowest ever we have gone as a country in the fight against corruption”.
“Most people that joined the protests to have you confirmed on the position of the Director General for the ACB, never anticipated that the ACB would go down to such levels with you at the helm.
“We at the CDEDI, could not believe that you really sanctioned the aforementioned statement, hence our patience, as we were waiting for your reaction on the matter, since we perceived you as a fierce fighter against corruption, the very vice that has plunged this country and its innocent citizens into biting poverty on one hand, while the perpetrators are living in a wonderland, on the other hand. We strongly believed that you were forced to act and hoped that at an opportune time, you would eventually speak out or at least honourably resign for letting down the very same people that fought for you,” he said
Namiwa cited other cases which ACB is still pursuing other than exercised prosecutorial discretion not to lay criminal charges against the suspects.
He cited the arrest of GVH Mwawa for receiving MK54, 000 from 26 beneficiaries of the 2022/2023 Affordable Inputs Program (AIP) and the announcement that the bureau had managed to secure conviction of one Magret Mbandambanda, a police officer under the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) for Limbe police station, who wasarrested for receiving MK100,000 in order to grant bail to a suspect.
“What is clear in these statements is that the ACB openly declared the amounts of money involved in the two cases, but the same bureau has suddenly become dumb to reveal what else Mr. Kapondamgaga has handed over to the ACB, apart from the Mercedes Benz. Secondly, as you can see, the two cases cited above involved money. We are, therefore, failing to understand why the ACB failed to give the other two an option of giving back the money they were suspected to have received, just like the way Mr Kapondamgaga was accorded the opportunity by the very same bureau to give back the car and the other undisclosed stuff? One would be forced to think that the two women were treated by the ACB as such because they are not connected to the political elite, and by extension, we can construe that the fight against corruption is merely a fight against the poor. Since the establishment of the bureau, we have never reached this low,” he said
