Cashgate: ACB searches Mphwiyo house, makes arrests

The Anti-Corruption Bureau, which has secured two convictions so far in the Cashgate prosecutions, yesterday morning pounced on former budget director Paul Mphwiyo.

The bureau also arrested Mphwiyo’s wife, Thandie, and thoroughly searched their Area 43 residence in Lilongwe.

Mphwiyo, whose shooting incident on September 13 last year at the entrance of his home at night opened a can of worms that unravelled Cashgate, was so far being used as a State witness in the shooting incident and money laundering cases.

ACB deputy director Reyneck Matemba confirmed the arrests, saying: “We had a warrant of arrest and search warrant for the two. Our officers are currently searching their home and they [Mphwiyo and his wife] will be taken to police soon after they finish.”

Matemba said Mphwiyo faces charges of money laundering, theft and conspiracy to defeat the course of justice while as the wife has been charged with theft and money laundering.

The ACB deputy chief said he could not go into details about the charges because bureau was out to make more arrests [as we went to press] and feared the disclosure could interfere with that mission.

Mphwiyo, who was moved to the Office of the President and Cabinet (OPC) by the administration of Joyce Banda after the shooting incident, has been testifying against former Justice Minister Ralph Kasambara and others.

After his shooting, Mphwiyo was flown to South Africa for medical attention.

In one of the court appearances in August, Mphwiyo claimed Kasambara and Pika Manondo are two of the five people who approached him at the gate of his house on the night he was shot.

Kasambara, Manondo, his bother Dauka Manondo, Robert Kadzuwa and Macdonald Kumwembe pleaded not guilty to the attempted murder charge.

Mphwiyo also told the court that Kasambara, through Pika, Patrick Gadama and former spokesperson of People’s Party Hophmally Makande, was pressurising him to approve payments to some companies.

He claimed the Secretary to the Treasury told him not to honour the payments as they were made in bad faith.

The plunder of public funds, which saw about K20 billion growing wings according to an audit report, led to donor aid freeze.

The court has recently sentenced Tressa Senzani, former PS in the Ministry of Tourism, to jail for three years for diverting K63 million into a bank account of her private firm.

Also recently convicted in relation to the same Cashgate scandal is Victor Sithole, a former civil servant.