Cashgate: Make or break for PP government

To the ruling People’s Party (PP), assuming the reins of power was a far-fetched dream which came by accident.

This is the party which, following the death of former president Bingu wa Mutharika in April 2012, took over power by default from the then ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). This was the case since PP leader Joyce Banda was Malawi’s vice-president, and, therefore, was the one who could constitutionally become President.

Unfortunately for President Banda, she inherited a government that was collapsing.

This was a result of political and economic problems which followed Bingu’s poor governance record.

But when Banda took over, hope started to appear on the faces of many Malawians. In Banda, people saw a liberator who could bring the much-needed fuel supplies, forex and improved governance.

Banda knew all this and quickly worked hard to reverse the situation. Although the devaluation of the kwacha, as recommended by organisations such as the International Monitory Fund (IMF), did not go down well with many people, the results were that fuel and forex became available although at a much higher price.

For a while, President Banda silenced the hitherto vocal civil society organisations.

However, as Banda and her cohorts in PP were busy enjoying life in paradise, hell broke loose.

On September 13 2013, former budget director in the Ministry of Finance Paul Mphwiyo was shot at his Area 43 residence in Lilongwe.

What followed the attempted murder was unprecedented, especially after the incident resulted in the disclosure of wanton looting of taxpayers’ money worth billions of kwacha.

As a result, a number of civil servants, including a principal secretary, were arrested.

Investigations, including forensic auditing, followed. These revealed that a number of companies, which did not render any services to government, were paid some millions of kwacha. To make things worse, some of the people belonged to the ruling PP and had helped the party in one way or the other.

This was a headache for President Banda who unexpectedly had a huge task on her hands to save her government’s image.

Her first step was to call for Parliament in October where government, through Vice-President Khumbo Kachali, explained measures government was taking to stop the looting and to bring culprits to book.

In fact, DPP had wanted to block Kachali from addressing the august House, arguing that he too was linked to the looting.

DPP leader in the House, George Chaponda, claimed that Kachali was one of the owners of a company involved in cashgate. Kachali, however, denied the allegation and went on to sue a media organisation for character assassination.

Speaker of Parliament, Henry Chimunthu Banda, after making consultations, ruled that Kachali should address the House because it was government business.

However, political analyst Mustafa Hussein agrees that cashgate will have huge repercussions on the PP government.

Hussein believes that the survival of the party will depend on how the scandal will be handled.

“It will depend on how the party in government handles cashgate. If it (PP) handles it well, it will be a plus because people will have trust in it. But if it is mishandled, that will have a negative impact on how the ruling party will perform during the 2014 Tripartite Elections,” said Hussein.

According to him, the worst scenario would be when it is proved that top figures in the party were involved in the looting. Should that happen, adds Hussein, it would spell doom for the PP.

“Honestly, government has so far tried. There are people out there conducting investigations and cases are in court. If everything is thoroughly investigated and the truth comes out, it will be a plus to the ruling PP,” said Hussein.

Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace (CCJP) national secretary Chris Chisoni agreed with Hussein that the outcome of cashgate investigations will have an impact on PP.

“It’s no secret that if the PP mishandles the scandal, it will lose elections in 2014, but if it carefully handles it, that will be good for the party” said Chisoni.

“There is a belief that PP wants to be seen to be doing something, hence these arrests and investigations. But practically, or in reality, nothing is being done,” he said.

However, as investigations and audits are going on, Malawians are eagerly waiting to hear what really happened.