Gangata granted bail, pleads not guilty
The Lilongwe Principal Resident Magistrate’s Court yesterday released on bail Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) vice-president for Central Region Alfred Gangata after spending three nights in a police cell.
The businessperson-cum-politicians was arrested on Friday for allegedly uttering a false document purportedly from Malawi Revenue Authority (MRA) on tax records.

Gangata has since been charged with falsifying tax records, forgery, uttering a false document and concluding a transaction without a tax clearance certificate.
But when the charges were read to him in court yesterday, he pleaded not guilty to all the four counts.
After Gangata took plea, MRA lawyer Watson Chirwa told the court that the State was yet to serve the defence with disclosures and, therefore, needed guidance on how to proceed.
“The matter only came up for plea taking. We are yet to serve the defence with disclosures,” he said.
Blantyre-based private practice lawyer Felix Tambulasi, who is representing Gangata, seized the opportunity to make a bail application for his client and the State did not object to it.
In turn, principal resident magistrate Benjamin Chulu granted Gangata bail on condition that he should deposit a K1 million bond, produce two sureties each bonded at K1 million, surrender travel documents to the court and report to MRA offices fortnightly.
However, Tambulasi and another lawyer in Gangata’s legal team, Chancy Gondwe, prayed to the court to vary the cash bond condition on the two sureties. They asked the court to put a non-cash bond.
Prayed Gondwe: “Even if the amount on the sureties is raised, but as long as it is non-cash bond, we will be okay with that.”
Chulu granted the prayer to revise the cash bond to non-cash for the sureties and ordered that the accused must produce two sureties bonded at K2 million each, not cash.
The magistrate has since adjourned the matter to March 13 2025 and further ordered the State to serve the defence with disclosures.
According to the charge sheet, Gangata, between July 2017 and June 2018, allegedly prepared and used a falsified tax clearance certificate number MRA/MTO-LIL/000952 bearing the name Alfred Ruwani Gangata trading as Master Security Services to meet the bidding process requirement advertised by Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources.
Outside the courtroom, there was jubilation among DPP supporters as news filtered that Gangata had been granted bail. The moment he emrged from the courtroom, he was mobbed by supporters.