Mphwiyo gunman is an ex-soldier
One of the three men suspected of shooting Ministry of Finance budget director Paul Mphwiyo is a former Malawi Defence Force (MDF) officer.
Defence lawyer Chimwemwe Sikwese and MDF public affairs officer Lieutenant Taweni Kalua confirmed that 38-year-old McDonald Kumwembe served in the military.
“That’s right, he once worked in the military,” said Sikwese.
On the other hand, Kalua confirmed that Kumwembe was discharged from the military on disciplinary grounds in 2012.
He said: “He was discharged after 16 years of service.”
Kumwembe and alleged accomplice Robert Kadzuwa appeared before magistrate Patrick Chirwa in Lilongwe where Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Bruno Kalemba also convinced the court to allow the State to keep the suspects longer before taking plea.
Kalemba told the court: “We have not brought the two to take plea, but to ask court to allow the State to keep them for the maximum period possible.”
Despite an objection from Sikwese, Chirwa granted the State permission.
Said Sikwese: “The essence of my objection was that there was no basis to keep my clients in custody because the State has not even decided what to charge them.”
Kalemba said in court the two could face attempted murder “or worse if [Mphwiyo’s] situation in South Africa changes.”
Police arrested the three suspects at Bvumbwe in Thyolo on Monday but until yesterday, the law enforcers still kept identities of the third alleged accomplice under wraps.
Our sources suggested the likelihood of the unidentified suspect being turned into a State witness.
The two, Kumwembe and Kadzuwa, have since been remanded at Maula Prison in Lilongwe until October 18 when the State is expected to be ready with the case to allow the suspect to take plea.
Treasury sources said on Wednesday and Thursday, police paraded the two suspects at the Ministry of Finance to identify Treasury staff who they might have dealt with. However, the suspects failed to identify anyone.
Mphwiyo, currently at Milpark Clinic in Johannesburg, South Africa, was shot by his gate in Lilongwe’s low density suburb of Area 43 last Friday night.
