Malawi Parliament in the dark on ACB director removal

The Public Appointments Committee of Parliament has not been told the reasons for the removal of Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) director Justice Rezine Mzikamanda who has since returned to the Judiciary as Justice of Appeal.

Mzikamanda and the Acting Chief Secretary to the Government Willie Samute separately appeared before the committee on Wednesday during which they spoke of ‘misunderstandings’ which arose between the two parties, but they would not divulge them to the committee.

Committee chairperson Lingson Belekanyama confirmed that the two separately told the committee that the two parties reached a mutual understanding before Mzikamanda was redeployed.

“The committee wanted to know who initiated this mutual understanding that the ACB director should be deployed to the Judiciary. We would want to know the terms, but government has failed to disclose to us,” he said.

Belekanyama added: “As it stands now, government acted contrary to the law because they have not informed us of the misunderstandings between them; they just copied us a letter that the director had been deployed back to the Judiciary.”

According to Section 6 (2) of the Corrupt Practices Act, the President can only remove the ACB director with the confirmation of the Public Appointments Committee for inability to perform his functions.

But the committee heard that Mzikamanda’s performance was beyond reproach and he was even cited in the Afrobarometer survey of 2012 that prosecution of corruption cases in Malawi had improved under his leadership.

“We have discussed with the Chief Secretary that this should not happen again. If it was a voluntary resignation, the committee would still have to be informed. But we cannot force matters now,” he said.

Meanwhile, the committee interviewed and confirmed the Director of Public Prosecutions designate Mary Kachale on Wednesday. She replaces Bruno Kalemba who is yet to be redeployed.