Media barred from Mphwiyo meet
The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament has barred the media from the hearing of Ministry of Finance budget director Paul Mphwiyo’s side of the Capital Hill cashgate story scheduled for Tuesday in Lilongwe.
The long-awaited meeting between PAC and Mphwiyo is set to take place soon after the budget director’s family pleaded for privacy and dignity from the prying eyes of the media who have been seeking his side of the story in the on-going investigations into looting at Capital Hill.
However, the media would be allowed to take pictures of Mphwiyo before and after the meeting, but would not be accorded that opportunity during the meeting with Members of Parliament (MPs).
PAC chairperson Beatrice Mwangonde said in an interview yesterday Mphwiyo has suffered trauma and could not be subjected to an intimidating environment.
She added that the absence of the media was one of the conditions the committee and the Office of the President and Cabinet (OPC) had agreed on to facilitate Mphwiyo’s appearance before PAC.
Said Mwangonde: “The Chief Secretary [to the Government] had reservations on this and asked for a controlled environment. This is a sensitive matter and you know the matter concerning his shooting is in court.”
But Media Institute of Southern Africa (Misa) Malawi Chapter chairperson Anthony Kasunda said in an interview yesterday the media should be allowed unfettered access to the budget director to allow them communicate the information to Malawians.
He said: “Unless the committee promises to hold a press conference after the meeting, [this is not on] because the public should not be denied access to information from Mphwiyo.”
Mphwiyo will be queried on the role he played in the Capital Hill cashgate as budget director as it has been revealed that large sums of illegal payments were made between July and September, when he was shot at the gate of his Area 43 house in Lilongwe.
Last week, Edge Kanyongolo, associate professor of law at the University of Malawi’s Chancellor College in Zomba, told The Nation that there was no justification for the call for privacy from the Mphwiyo family because he remains a public figure who has a lot to tell Malawians.
I don’t see anything wrong with the approach PAC has taken. Some matters of national interest should be treated with all the sensitivities they require. This is not just another appearance before PAC. It borders on several other things. But PAC should at some point brief the public and would do that maturely, I believe.