The High Court of Malawi Financial and Economic Crimes Division sitting in Lilongwe has found former Anti- Corruption Bureau (ACB) director-general Reyneck Matemba with a case to answer on one count, but acquitted him on another.
Matemba, who is also a former Solicitor General, was answering two charges in relation to a contract awarded to a firm belonging to United Kingdom (UK)-ba sed Malawian businessperson Zuneth Sattar.
The charges are failure to declare interest as a board member of the Publ i c Procurement and Disposal of Assets (PPDA) as well as Solicitor General in the approval and vetting of the $7.8 million Malawi Police Service food rations contract awarded to Sattar’s firm.
Delivering the ruling in Lilongwe yesterday, presiding judge Violet Chipao found Matemba with a case to answer on the first count of failure to declare interest as a PPDA board member.
However, the court acquitted him on the second count of failure to declare interest in the matter as Solicitor General.
In an interview after the High Court ruling, the State, through ACB principal legal and prosecutions officer Peter Simbani, expressed satisfaction with the ruling.
He said: “This is the first case to be tried from the evidence that was obtained from the National Crimes Agency [NCA] of the UK. So, being the first case to have the evidence tendered and analysed by the court is also a big win for the State in light of other cases that deal with evidence that was obtained from the NCA.”
In a separate interview, Matemba, who, represents himself in the matter, said: “Like I have done since my arrest, I will proceed with defending myself. The case is coming on April 2 [2025], and I will give the court my side of the story.”
Matemba was arrested on August 5, 2022 on allegations that he received a bribe of $10 000 (about K17.5 million) from Sattar in relation to the $7.875 million Malawi Police Service food rations contract.
However, about a year later, the ACB changed the charges, indicating that Matemba failed to declare interest in the approval and vetting of the contract when he was a board member of the PPDA and Solicitor General.
But during the hearing on October 25, 2023, Matemba asked ACB why it vetted and cleared the police food rations contract when it was investigating Xavier Limited, a company owned by Sattar.
Responding to Matemba, ACB principal investigations officer Jack Banda told the court that the bureau started investigating Xavier Limited after the National Audit Office (NAO), between 2018 and 2019, submitted files to the ACB about procurements concerning various companies, including Xavier.
