18th July, 2022
The State President, Office of the President and Cabinet
Capital Hill, Lilongwe.
ATT: DR. LAZARUS CHAKWERA
Dear Your Excellency,
RE: CONCERNS ON GLARING SELECTIVE APPLICATION OF JUSTICE
The Centre for Democracy and Economic Development Initiatives (CDEDI, has been called to duty once again and writes you, Your Excellency, with reference to the above stated subject matter.
Right at the onset, CDEDI would like to take you back Your Excellency, to the oath you took before assuming the high office of the presidency, where you swore to protect and serve the people of Malawi without fear or favour. In the Super Hi5 agenda, emphasis was made on servant leadership style, which in short entails that the people of Malawi would always come first.Â
Your Excellency, your actions and conduct in the ongoing alleged high profile corruption scandal involving a British business person, Mr. Zuneth Sattar, has exposed clear cases of selective application of justice. The following examples have come to mind:
Soon after receiving a report from the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) Director General (DG), madam Martha Chizuma, you swiftly made a number of directives which included the scrapping off of all the delegated powers to the Vice President Dr. Saulos Chilima; the firing of the Inspector General (IG) of the Malawi Police Service (MPS) Dr. George Kainja; and the suspension of your Chief of Staff Mr. Prince Kapondamgaga. You in fact hinted that you wished your Vice President Dr. Chilima was fired, but the constitution does not give you such powers!
You told Malawians that the ACB report in question had 84 names but evidence was pointing at four top government officials. It is however, very surprising to note that only Dr. Kainja was fired, while the rest are still discharging their duties in public offices. We all know at this stage that we are dealing with allegations until those involved are brought before a competent court of law. It is therefore surprising that the other names that
were mentioned by your own lips are still working in the same public offices, thereby raising fears that they might not be properly investigated or they might be at liberty to destroy evidence, let alone block the ongoing investigations.
Just to refresh your memory, Your Excellency, you recently fired Hon. Kenzie Msukwa from cabinet on allegations that he received a vehicle from Mr. Sattar, before Hon. Msukwa was taken to court for prosecution.
However, as you are reading this letter, the social media is awash with revelations from the National Crimes Agency (NCA) in the United Kingdom (UK), alleging that another member of your cabinet, Hon. Eisenhower Mkaka, MP also benefited from Mr. Sattar. Nonetheless, you still have maintained Hon. Mkaka in your cabinet.
As you were giving an update to the nation regarding the ACB’s report, you indicated that the Solicitor General, who is also the former ACB Director, Mr. Rayneck Matemba, was implicated in the same alleged high profile corruption scandal. Surprisingly, Mr. Matemba is still working at the Ministry of Justice, a ministry that is very critical to the same case at hand.
If this is not selective application of justice, then what do you call it Mr. President? Can Mr. Matemba, in your own honest judgement Your Excellency, act on a document involving his own case? This begs another moral question; can people trust you, Your Excellency, that you are really fighting corruption in this country?
The above stated examples, Your Excellency, have eroded the trust people had in you, which is a pre-qualification to exercise the delegated authority as clearly stipulated in section 12 of the Republican Constitution.
Last but not the least, CDEDI would like to assure you, Your Excellency, that this loss of trust, coupled with your failure to honour your flagship campaign promise to scrap off presidential immunity, are some of the major reasons that will force Malawians to take to the streets in the next few days, to conduct peaceful demonstrations, demanding a better Malawi for all. This however can be avoided if you demonstrate that you are seriously fighting corruption by firing those that are suspected to have committed corruption so that they face the arm of law without any fear of interference.
Yours Faithfully,
Sylvester Namiwa
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
