This is self-inflicted idiocy

The fight against the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) and in particular its director general Martha Chizuma is too steeped. This is my take away. Those fighting her also care less whether or not Malawi loses the goodwill of its development partners and consequently support from them. Whatever there is for them, they have reached a point of no return.

We all know the genesis of how Chizuma has crossed paths with the forces now fighting her. It is ACB’s acceptance of the National Crimes Agency (NCA) of UK investigations on businessperson Zunneth Sattar and action on them. Until the NCA investigations kicked in, ACB was just one ‘innocuous’ body doing its work diligently. 

Here I argue that if you take Sattar and the NCA out of the equation, no one would be plotting to entrap Chizuma. And government would not be hounding her the way it is doing now.

The ACB report based on NCA investigations on Sattar talks about 84 Malawian individuals from both the public and private sector as having benefitted, in one way or another, from the businessperson. But whether or not those mentioned in the ACB report really benefitted from him is a different kettle of fish that only courts can prove. So far, the 84 individuals are innocent until proven otherwise by a competent court of law. But as I have said, take Sattar and the NCA investigations out of ACB, those firing on Chizuma will have no reason to do so.

Chizuma’s adversaries know themselves and serious consequences of their crimes. That if she was to be left to go all the way, they are finished. They are dead people walking. It may not be today or tomorrow or next month but the D-day would still come. So they might as well start rehearsing life on the other side of the fence. In jail.

That is why they have already shown they will go to any length to stop the ACB tsar in her tracks. Before it is too late. They have so far used every trick in the book and somehow succeeded in their sinister plans. They entrapped her. No one knows what else they did to catch her. Chizuma is now facing criminal defamation charges over a viral leaked audio of January 6 2022 in which she divulged details of an investigation to a third party.

Now the European Union, the United States and United Kingdom governments have spoken in no uncertain terms. They are not amused with how the Malawi Government is handling Chizuma. What broke the camel’s back is Attorney General (AG) Thabo Chakaka-Nyirenda’s application to vacate a court order obtained by the Malawi Law (MLS) allowing the ACB boss to resume her duties. Secretary to the President and Cabinet Colleen Zamba had interdicted Chizuma in a January 31 2023 letter effectively stopping her from discharging her duties until the case is concluded.

Both the US and UK envoys in Malawi said they are incensed with the events around Chizuma describing them as a threat to the fight against corruption and hinted at possible sanctions. The US which is the country’s largest bilateral partner providing more than $350million to Malawi annually in bilateral assistance, said in a statement events of the past two months show that the Malawi Government is actively fighting against the ACB.

Adding its weight, the UK said it is deeply concerned by recent events affecting the fight against corruption and shares concerns by MLS and civil society organisations against the pursuit of criminal charges against the passionate champion of the fight against graft. It deplored government’s use of the law, police and judicial system to frustrate the will of the people.

On its part, the EU, which is also one of the country’s major donors, said it is monitoring the situation and waiting to see the outcome of the government’s latest attempt to vacate the stay order. But the EU head in Malawi Rune Skinnebach warned that Malawi will struggle to attract aid and create a conducive business environment if the fight against corruption is interrupted.

But none of these warnings raffles any features in the Malawi Government. Those fighting ACB and Chizuma are too dazed and steeped in the mire of whatever is motivating them to the point they can’t hear the alarm bells or read the bold writing on the wall. They have reached a point of no return. It’s a shame. Some have aptly put it that munthu akamamwalira, amayamba kugontha m’khutu (when you are about to die, it is the ears that first get clogged up). If in its total deafness and blindness Government does not make an about-turn in its crescendo towards self-inflicted idiocy and destruction, Malawians already reeling from so many economic shocks, should brace for the worst. n