Malawi Supreme Court of Appeal has endorsed an agreed order between Deputy Minister of Homeland Security Norman Chisale and the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Fostino Maele to terminate forfeiture proceedings against the applicants.
The application before a single Supreme Court Judge Dingiswayo Madise followed the High Court of Malawi Commercial Division’s refusal to endorse an agreed order initiated by the DPP to withdraw the forfeiture proceedings against Chisale and six others.
In his judgement dated September 8 2026, he said the High Court misdirected itself by failing to distinguish between civil and criminal proceedings.
“These forfeiture proceedings are civil proceedings and are governed by the Civil Procedure Rules 2017. The Financial Crimes Act does not have the procedure on how to deal with civil matters,” said Madise.
He further said the High Court was outside the law when it declined to endorse the agreed order, as parties to civil proceedings were at liberty to agree on how to resolve their dispute.
“There was no justification whatsoever in law for the court below to decline to endorse the agreed order,” Madise said, noting that the proceedings had been initiated by the DPP, who no longer wanted the matter to continue.
The proceedings, classified as Civil Cause No. 75 of 2021 before the Financial and Economic Crimes Division, arose after the DPP obtained a preservation order allowing the State to seize a number of properties belonging to Chisale and others estimated at K1.7 billion.
The forfeiture proceedings followed allegations that Chisale had unexplained wealth of about K5 billion and was involved in money laundering. The related criminal case was withdrawn by the DPP in March this year.
Chisale’s lawyer, Chancy Gondwe, said he had no instructions from his client to comment on the matter. The DPP’s office had also not responded by press time.
Court documents show that of the 86 motor vehicles listed in the preservation order, 63 were registered under Norman P. Chisale as importer while the importer details for 23 others were left blank.
The vehicles include Range Rovers, Jeep Wranglers, Land Cruisers, Mercedes-Benz, BMW X5s and Toyota Prados. Two bank accounts were also frozen—one at National Bank’s Capital City Branch, holding more than K30 million and another at First Capital Bank with more than K87 million.
The State also seized 21 properties, including residential and commercial properties in Blantyre, Lilongwe, Dedza and Ntcheu, as well as Zimatha Executive Lodge in Mangochi and Namauya Investments Depot in Ntcheu.
The six other respondents were Chimwemwe Paulosi, Deborah Zimatha Chisale, Esnart Guga, Flony Guga, Jannet Fatch Kamanga and Christina Mvula.
