After the commission, what next?

January 5 2023

So, we were still enjoying the fine and fresh breeze of the New Year. There we were with a deep hope that the problems that characterized the year 2022 would remain there.

So, there we were making the 2023 resolutions that we would be healthier, without thoughts about cholera to worry about. There we were hoping for a happier 2023, a New Year where fertilizer woes and Agricultural Inputs Programme ceases to be a nightmare for the rural masses and a cash cow for the elite few.

There we were, dreaming of a richer people in a fresh year. Rich people, not because of more material wealth gotten through rotten means like buying fertilizer in butcheries and textile shops. But rich people because everyone has disposable income at the end of the day because food is cheap for all to afford, as well as other goods and commodities.

We went into the New Year with President Lazarus Chakwera promising us a better Malawi, as usual. So, we were there making the resolutions for the coming year, to share a common dream and vision.

But while we were still dreaming, the alarm clock brought us back to reality on January 2. The Commission of Inquiry Chakwera appointed to look into the arrest of Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) director general Martha Chizuma last month brought us back to the real Malawi.

Secretary to the President and Cabinet Colleen Zamba, one of the luckiest SPCs around, announced that the report from the Commission was ready for the public to peruse. But alas, the initial report that was made public started from page 22, a chapter on the recommendations. The earth shuttering truth was that Malawians needed to let the sad reality that they will still be taken for granted, a people who are just nincompoops who would not know that a full report has other basic factors.

And, the dream that we would no longer be fed lies was quashed after Malawians cried foul through individual social media posts, with the Malawi Law Society and other civil society organisations calling for a full report, and Information Minister Gospel Kazako brought that same old song. He told the world that the partial release was the only part which the Commission had read out to the President. Funny, how dreams are broken!

Then, when the full report came, it became clear that the United States Embassy had told the Malawi leader to release Chizuma unconditionally or for him and top henchmen would have travel bans, while at the same time freezing aid. The British made similar threats. This shows how much the dung of corruption is supposed to be rejected.

It also became clear from the report that the commanding order in the Police has been thrown to the dogs. Not only were there gaps in their conduct in forgetting that when arresting the ACB DG, there was supposed to be some female officers, which led to the improvisation of having officers who were supposed to cordon the house ending up executing that duty.

What is mind-boggling is the fact that it is apparent almost all concerned members of the Cabinet who were supposed to be in the know learnt of the arrest from ‘social media’. How such a high profile arrest missed the eyes and ears of the whole Cabinet, and even the top spy leaves us wondering: Who really controls Malawi under the veil of night?

One would also wonder why the Commission never used its powers vested on it by the President to get information on who the members of Cabinet were talking to in the event leading to the macabre scenes.

One dares not be reminded that the report displayed the animosity between Chizuma and Kayuni. It could not be surprising to find that the two were contemporaries in college and they may be taking their academic rivalry at a higher level. Eveything is possible, but that is just my speculation.

When everything is said and done, after the report what next? Shall we know why one Anderson Makwelu recorded his conversation with Chizuma? Who leaked the clip and why?

What will happen to the police officers who went overboard to unleash the macabre operation without following due diligence? Shall we find who issued the instruction to the police deputy IG to arrest Chizuma in the absence of his boss who was in Zambia.

The questions abound, but we may never get the answers. The Commission of Inquiry in the Mwanza Accident yielded nothing in the courts. To date, it is not known who were the police officers who denied musician Evison Matafale from getting medical treatment and put him in hazardous situations when he was in their hands. What became of the inquiry into the death of economist Kalonga Stambuli who was found dead in his house after poisoning with a note by his side declaring: You are an evil man? Shall we talk about the slaying of Polytechnic student Robert Chasowa?

Well, we will sit down to try to understand why the dream has been shattered in its egg. Can we manage to leave one day at a time in Malawi?