DPP in new legal woes
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is heading back to court after the June 1 2023 Blue Night case ruling as five civil society organisations (CSOs) plan to file a contempt of court against the party.
The CSOs, through lawyer Wesley Mwafulirwa of Kawelo Lawyers, will file the contempt charges claiming the DPP has failed to respect the judgement by High Court of Malawi judge Zione Ntaba at the Zomba Registry.
The CSOs are Centre for Development of People (Cedep), Centre for Human Rights and Rehabilitation, Youth and Society, Human Rights Consultative Committee and Livingstonia Synod’s Church and Society Programme.
In the June 1 ruling, Ntaba ordered the DPP to pay back about K13.5 million that it allegedly got from parastatals during its gala dinner, the Blue Night in 2027.
However, the party has moved to appeal the High Court decision at the Malawi Supreme Court of Appeal, through lawyer Chimwemwe Sikwese of Sikwese and Company.
In an interview yesterday, Cedep executive director Gift Trapence, who said he was representing the other CSOs on the matter, confirmed instructing their lawyers to file for contempt.
He said: “The DPP has not complied with Judge Ntaba’s ruling. They defied the court order. So, we instructed our lawyers to move with contempt of court application.”
In a separate interview yesterday, Mwafulirwa confirmed that they will be moving the court next week, as there is no stay on the judgement.
However, he confirmed that their counterparts (DPP legal team) already filed notices of appeal to the Malawi Supreme Court of Appeal.
Mwafulirwa said: “There is no stay on that judgement, because the assumption is that without a stay, it means the judgement is still in effect.
“There is nothing that they have done, so far, in respect of all the directions and declarations that the High Court of Malawi made. So, we are filing for contempt.”
However, DPP lawyer Chimwemwe Sikwese said they have filed an appeal.
“Where we are now is at the stage of filing an appeal to the Malawi Supreme Court of Appeal. But the problem that we have is that we don’t have a perfect judgement from the High Court.
“This would help us develop arguments; we know the judge has been busy. But we are pursuing an appeal,” he said.
On June 1, Justice Ntaba ordered the DPP to refund within 30 days the K13.5 million donated by State enterprises, namely, Blantyre, Lilongwe and Mzuzu city councils and Lilongwe Water Board, during its 2017 fundraising dinner.
The court further ordered the party to provide information on all public institutions that gave it money during the event.
DPP allegedly the money from the four public institutions during the fundraiser where former president Peter Mutharika and former first lady Gertrude Mutharika were the guests of honour.
Earlier, private practice lawyer John-Gift Mwakhwawa hailed the judgement, saying money provided to political parties by public institutions belong to Malawians.
“Those institutions have no duty to fund political parties. In fact, the Court should have also ordered controlling officers for those institutions to be liable, but since they were not party to the case, they could not be held liable.
“Going forward, somebody must take controlling officers of those public institutions themselves to task in addition to the political parties,” he said.
