Storm rages for Chizuma
The storm is still raging for Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) director general Martha Chizuma who has this time around been interdicted in a move her lawyer and Malawi Law Society (MLS) have described as surprising.
An interdiction order dated January 31 2023 signed by Secretary to the President and Cabinet (SPC) Colleen Zamba said the anti-graft busting body’s chief was suspended in line with the Malawi Public Service Regulations 42(3) as read with Regulation 42 following criminal defamation charges she is facing in court. The letter said she will be on full pay.
In an interview last evening, Chizuma’s lawyer Martha Kaukonde confirmed that her client received the ‘Order of Interdiction’ from the SPC, but said the move was surprising because she was yet to take plea.
She said: “I can confirm that she has been given an Order of Interdiction based on the case she is yet to take plea on in court. She is supposed to take plea on 8th February. Normally, it’s not supposed to work that way, but it’s been done.”
Malawi Law Society (MLS) president Patrick Mpaka expressed similar surprise in a written response and said the SPC’s letter appeared to be “seriously misguided and perhaps issued without jurisdiction” because due to the need for independence of the office of the ACB director general Section 4(3) of the Corrupt Practices Act (CPA) and in Section 6(2) and (3) provides that the power to suspend or remove the ACB chief is in the President and can only be done where the reason is desirable in the public interest to do so.
He said: “The letter in circulation does not make reference to the Act nor the reason under the Act. It should be doubtful if it has been authorised by the only authority that can suspend the ACB director general because ordinarily the President should know that the situation is well guided by the CPA and I think the President understands this if you listened to his speech of 24th January 2022.”
Responding to The Nation on the development, University of Malawi professor of law Garton Kamchedzera said the SPC’s action was an “act of desperate, brazen impunity by corrupt networks fighting not only the ACB DG, but the whole idea that this country can fight the rot of corruption.”.
He said: “An SPC has no such powers with a principal piece of legislation that is called the Corrupt Practices Act in place. Only the President can suspend the ACB director. What she has attempted to do is invalid and of no effect. It should be ignored because it cannot be legally enforced.”
Kamchedzera said SPC’s conduct was also suspicious because President Lazarus Chakwera has told the nation that he wanted to keep Chizuma at the helm of ACB.
“It is either the President is hypocritical or he needs to wrestle back control of this government from corrupt networks who are causing all this shame,” he said.
Malawi Human Rights Consultative Council chairperson Robert Mkwezalamba said Chizuma’s interdiction has come early and suggested that she should have at least taken a plea in court.
Legal Affairs Committee of Parliament chairperson Peter Dimba described the move as a well choreographed script.
He said: “We are shocked that our administration seems so determined to push the Malawi nation over the cliff. This whole drama sounds surreal considering the kind of leadership we have, and as the Bible says, ‘to whom much is given, much is expected’.”
In an earlier interview, revered prosecutor Kamudoni Nyasulu said the Malawi Public Service Regulations can only be invoked where the charges are sound.
Chizuma is scheduled to take plea at the Lilongwe Chief Resident Magistrate’s Court on February 8 2023 under criminal case number 236 of 2023 on two counts of making use of speech to lower the authority of a person before whom a judicial proceeding is being heard, which the State claims is against Section 113 (d) of the Penal Code. The summons said that authority was High Court of Malawi Judge Simeon Mdeza whom Chizuma allegedly suggested took a bribe.
The second count is making use of speech capable of prejudicing a person against a party to judicial proceedings by indicating in the audio that former Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Steven Kayuni is corrupt and compromised.
Police arrested Chizuma at dawn on December 6 2022 following a complaint purportedly filed by Kayuni about a viral audio in which she was overheard giving a third party details of an investigation. However, she was first released on police bail before Minister of Justice Titus Mvalo later told Parliament she was released unconditionally.
Earlier last year, a private citizen Frighton Phompho moved the court in Mzuzu to open a case against the ACB chief on allegations that she violated the CPA by revealing to a third-party information about United Kingdom-based businessperson Zunneth Sattar, who is under investigation for corruption.
Sattar’s business associate Ashok Kumar Sreedharan also sued Chizuma for alleging that money changed hands to have him released after an arrest.
