As Malawians celebrated their entry into 2024 hopes were high that some of the public interest cases in the courts will come to a conclusion this year.
These included corruption cases linked to United Kingdom (UK)-based businessperson Zuneth Sattar and senior government officials as well procurement disputes against businessperson Abdul Karim Batatawala and others.
Other cases were that of former president Peter Mutharika’s personal bodyguard Norman Chisale’s assets forfeiture, K4.6 billion Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (Escom) procurement, and the alleged irregular recruitment of 127 immigration assistants.
Of interest was the controversial thin plastics ban case and the case involving Mulli Brothers Holdings Limited, former secretary to the treasury Cliff Chiunda as well as former secretary to the President and Cabinet Lloyd Muhara. They are accused of defrauding the Malawi Government through their handling of the defunct Malawi Savings Bank Debt Collection Company.
Some of the mentioned cases started about four years ago will enter 2025, which is an election year, and seem to have no clear direction.
The year 2024 saw the snail’s pace of prosecution of the corruption case involving Sattar. The case has been at the centre of a joint probe between the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) and the National Crimes Agency in the UK.
The probes are linked to multi-billion-kwacha food and arms supply deals which Sattar’s companies struck with State agencies, notably the Malawi Defence Force and the Malawi Police Service.
The investigations led to the arrests of top government officials, including the late Vice-President Saulos Chilima, former minister of Lands Kezzie Msukwa and former Inspector General of Police George Kainja. Sattar associate Ashok Nair and Msukwa were arrested in 2021, while Chilima and Kainja were arrested in 2022 by the ACB.
But before his death in a June 10 2024 military plane crash in Viphya Plantation, Chilima’s charges had been dropped on grounds of national security.
Since then, there has not been much happening and the ACB freed Sattar’s banks accounts that were frozen in connection with investigations of some procurement deals in government ministries, departments and agencies.
ACB spokesperson Egrita Ndala in November told The Nation that Sattar’s accounts were unfrozen because investigations revealed that they were not used for payments from the Malawi Government.
“It was established that the accounts where the Malawi Government cheques were paid were based outside Malawi. It has also been established that those accounts were frozen there,” she said.
Meanwhile Msukwa will be back in court on February 13 2025 where the Malawi Supreme Court of Appeal will hear an application for leave of judicial review of his arrest along with businessperson Ashok Nair. But it is not clear as to when Sattar and others cases are expected to be concluded.
On the other hand, about eight months after the High Court of Malawi sitting as a Constitutional Court in Zomba dismissed in its entirety Batatawala and former Immigration chief Elvis Thodi’s application to be exonerated from their criminal matter, there has also been not much progress on the matter.
In their application, one of their lawyers Fostino Maere argued that ACB, which is prosecuting the criminal matter, charged them under the Financial Crimes Act (FCA) enacted in February 2017 when their alleged offences were committed between 2009 and 2012.
But delivering the judgement in April, the three-judge panel of Texious Masoamphambe, Patrick Chirwa and Dick Sankhulani said charging the duo under the FCA did not violate their rights.
Batatawala and Thodi are currently answering the first count of conspiracy to defraud by inflating the market price of 500 lockers procured by the Department of Immigration and Citizenship Service.
They are accused of inflating the market price of the lockers sourced from Africa Commercial Agency at K2 950 560 per unit price totalling K1 475 280 000.
On the other hand, Chisale’s assets forfeiture case also failed to be completed in 2024 following a number of adjournments and preliminary applications. The State filed an application to forfeit Chisale’s assets valued at over K5billion.
On December 17 2024, the High Court failed to start hearing the case because Chisale through his lawyer Chancy Gondwe asked for disclosures arguing that the State may have sued a wrong party. High Court judge Anneline Kanthambi then adjourned the matter to February 25 2025.
A day before recommencing Chisale’s case, the High Court will on February 24 2025 continue hearing a K4.6 billion case in which former Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (Escom) executives are accused of flouting procurement procedures in 2016. The executives are former Escom board chairperson Jean Mathanga, chief executive officer John Kandulu, director of procurement Fanuel Nkhono and senior procurement manager Emmilius Kandapo.
The date followed an application by ACB which told the court that it needs five more days to complete parading its remaining eight witnesses.
Another case expected to reconvene in February is the alleged irregular recruitment of 127 immigration assistants involving former minister of Homeland Security Cecilia Chazama and five others. The five are former Immigration chief Masauko Medi, Immigration officer Chandiwira Chidothe, former Department of Human Resource Management and Development PS Hilario Chimota and Immigration officials Pudensiana Makalamba and Limbani Chawinga.
ACB legal and prosecutions officer Michael Kalonga in April 2024 told the court that since the start of the case in 2022, the bureau has struggled to access some documents from Immigration to help consolidate its evidence.
“We tried our best, but it wasn’t easy to get those documents. We request the court to issue a court order addressed to the Immigration. Maybe that can carry more weight so that we can get the documents in question,” he said.
Mulli’s case will likely be the first to be heard in 2025 as it is set for January 6 2025.
The year 2024 cannot go without highlighting the controversial thin plastic ban case which has dragged for years, a development that compelled Malawi Council of Churches (MCC) to express worry over the stay order restricting the Malawi Environmental Protection Authority (Mepa) from enforcing a ban on single-use thin plastics.
The reaction from the organisation made up of 26-member churches and para-church affiliate organisations, came against the background of High Court Judge Simeon Mdeza who on July 9 2024 gave the 11 plastic manufacturers permission to apply for judicial review.
The plastic manufacturers are challenging the constitutionality and legality of the Environmental Management (Plastics) Regulations of 2015.
As Malawians enter the year 2025, expectations are also high to see these cases concluded.
