08/01/2023
*Garton Kamchedzea*
February 23 2022 Facebook Post.
In a week when civil and criminal proceedings were filed against Ms. Martha Chizuma in her personal capacity regarding a recorded and leaked conversation about her official work, my mind goes back to the speech President Lazarus Chakwera made on 24 January 2022 about the leaked audio recording. In this regard, I have two questions to the legal profession, to which I belong, and law enforcement agencies in this county.
Question 1: Why did the “several legal minds” tell the President that the leaked audio recording contained enough information to justify her removal as Director-General of the Anti-Corruption Bureau but not that the man whose voice is heard on the recording needed to be investigated for a criminal offence? Section 319A(f) of the Penal Code creates an offence punishable by seven years imprisonment for any person to engage in deceit to induce another person to do or say something that she or he is lawfully entitled to abstain from doing or saying. The man whose voice is in the audio and abused the trust she had in him slyly asked questions whose answers could be used to knock her out of the fight against corruption. She struggled to answer some of those questions, as he presented himself to be on her side. A month later, that man is still referred to as “unknown” by mainstream media, as the nation and opponents focus on one woman, Ms. Martha Chizuma.
Question 2: Why have crime investigation and prosecution agencies appeared not even to question the man with whom Ms. Chizuma conversed, to get a possible window into the illicit networks of maggots or in the President’s words, “those evil forces that recorded her?” Instead of hearing that any of the agencies that should be fighting corruption too in this country, such as the Police and the Financial Intelligence Authority, have worked to explore who recorded her and why it is Ms. Chizuma answering criminal charges and defending herself against expensive civil suits in Malawi’s judicial system. Much as the public has through their expectations and confidence in this woman made her an easy target for opponents, my disgust is against those that are employed to collaborate with her to fight corruption. These, for me, are as culpable as the man who betrayed her and the illicit networks of maggots such public functionaries are not investigating.
I have one answer to these two questions: Our institutions, structures and processes, are too rotten to fight corruption, which controls decision-making and action-taking in this pathetic country. Despite knowing about this situation, there has for decades, been no radical reform in this country. For example, why is it that almost two years later, a Government elected on the necessity for radical reform continues to preside over a morally and legally rotten and rotting country? I must return to this question, possibly this week.
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