Pastors, plunder and oil deals

The role of Secretary to the President and Cabinet Colleen Zamba in Malawi’s oils deals raises more suspicion.

If recent former National Oil Company of Malawi (Nocma) acting deputy chief executive officer Hellen Buluma’s revelations are anything to go by, there is more to be demanded from Zamba in terms of accountability. She needed to resign her position to allow investigations into the serious allegations about her influence peddling in Nocma deals.

It is hypocrisy for the Office of President and Cabinet (OPC) to proclaim austerity measures to be followed by all government ministries, departments and agencies, yet OPC itself is the first to engage in the most blatant unethical conduct that undermines all procurement laws.

When Zamba assumed office a couple of months ago, replacing Zanga-Zanga Chikhosi, many were duped into believing that OPC had finally moved into safe hands. Alas! Little did they know that this was the beginning of an era when OPC would rule with total impunity and blatant disregard of rule of law, which was the very cornerstone of the Malawi Congress Party (MCP) government, forget about the Tonse mantra, it now no longer exists.

Surprisingly, supporting this impunity agenda is the Attorney General Thabo Chakaka- Nyirenda. The general expectation from all and sundry is that the AG is supposed to work as the legal adviser of government, working with impartiality and always upholding the rule of law. Not with Chakaka. The man is up and about town operating as like an MCP district chairperson.

He has embarked on a crusade to shield and protect corrupt officials from possible prosecution. He is busy providing legal advice that contradicts dictates of the supreme law of the land (the Constitution), with potential to violate accountability charters. Sometimes the AG behaves with strange overzealous knee-jerk actions and reactions. Many Malawians are yet to understand why he found himself in Germany the other day, yet government has diplomatic missions and international partners that could follow the lost fertiliser money.

Well, days are now turning into weeks without any tangible outcome from that barren Germany trip. Or is it true that some company decided to refund part of the butchery fertiliser money in Malawi kwacha, and that the money was paid within the country? If yes, then the levels of theft and plunder have reached ridiculously high summits that even little kids will easily detect such dishonesty.

In her revelations, Buluma bares it all by mentioning so-called brokers or middle-persons in oil deals. These are spread all over the globe, from Dubai to South Africa to Nigeria to Lilongwe. There is a good sense of gender representation as the mentioned brokers are both men and women.

Interestingly, yet sadly, some of the oil deal brokers are persons that profess pastoral inclinations. They are supposedly men and women of God. They were ready and eager to pay hefty tithes, church offerings and bounteous seed money stolen from the oil deals. Certainly, these are kinds of offerings the Almighty God frowns and scoffs at.

Sadly, the pastors appear resolute in their plundering plans. One would wonder if at all they have any modicum of pity over millions of Malawians that languish in the struggles of the long fuel queues. Apparently, the pastors want to benefit from the misery and suffering of their flock. They have no compassion over their laity.

They are wolves in sheep skins. Malawi is ruled by a special kind of theocracy [call it thievocracy] which has abandoned the ethical teachings of the Bible as they are bent at looting.

Government is besieged by pastors and reverends that are specialising in theft. They are supported by OPC to connive with nameless brokers that are fixing shady oil deals. Is President Chakwera not aware of these pastoral plundering cartels?