National Anti-Corruption Alliance calls on Chakwera to fire Minister Msukwa to pave way for investigations

President Chakwera

By Duncan Mlanjira

National Anti-Corruption Alliance welcomes the arrest of Minister of Lands & Urban Development, Kezzie Msukwa and Ashok Kumar Sreedharan in relation to corruption investigation the Bureau is undertaking involving Zineth Abdul Rashid Sattar.

The Alliance — comprising Church and Society of the CCAP Synod of Livingstonia; Centre for Human Rights and Rehabilitation; Youth and Society and Malawi Law Society — thus calls on President Lazarus Chakwera to “immediately fire the Minister to pave way for more effective investigations and prosecution”.

“While underlying that a person is innocent until proven guilty by a court of law, the Alliance takes cognizance that this is not the first Minister of Chakwera’s Cabinet “to be embroiled on a corruption scandal and any delay in firing Msukwa will send a negative signal about the President’s commitment to purge his administration of corruption”.

The Alliance also asks Chakwera to reshuffle his Cabinet taking cognizance of Msukwa’s case and that of former Energy Minister Newton Kambala and others and in reorganizing it the President should do thorough screening.

They say the involvement of Msukwa in this alleged corruption charge is “yet another indication that the President may not have done enough screening before appointing his Cabinet”.

“This development is thus an opportunity for the President to pick a cabinet based on merit and of individuals with integrity.

“The Alliance further calls for a comprehensive national audit of plot allocations by the Ministry of Lands for the last five years in all the major cities and their sorroundings. We need to go beyond Sattar and investigate how plots were allocated during the current and previous governments”

The Alliance “strongly suspects that “there  could be more to in the Ministry than meets the eye” and that “any wrongdoing must be exposed and remedied quickly so that public lands and finances are benefiting all people of Malawi — not just those with corrupt connections.

While commending efforts being done by the ACB, the Financial Inyellihencce Agency and the office of the Attorney General “to curb serious and organized corruption”, the Alliance calls on the Bureau “to prosecute those arrested without delay and according to international fair trial standards”.

“As an Alliance, we do not want to see any delays to the case considering that the arrests are coming after thorough investigations by the ACB, which we understand, have so far established that Hon. Msukwa corruptly used the privileges of his office contrary to section 25 (1) as read together with Section 34 of the Corrupt Practices Act.”

“As an Alliance, we reiterate our call for expeditious establishment of the Financial Crimes Court to fast-track and efficiently dispose of cases of corruption and theft of public funds.”

The Alliance believes that the proposed “special court would help clear the growing backlog of stagnating cases of corruption in our courts,” adding that “Malawians have exercised enough patience over delays in prosecuting corruption cases. Any further delays will not be acceptable.”

“It is therefore our hope that government will expedite the establishment of this special court in order to accelerate prosecution and finalisation of these cases.

The warrant of arrest for Msukwa and Ashok Kumar Sreedharan — issued on Wednesday by the Chief Resident Magistrate — says Msukwa “is reasonably suspected of having committed three counts of corrupt use of official powers contrary to section 25 (1) of the Corrupt Practices Act as read together with section 34 of the Corrupt Practices Act”.

Particulars of the offense are that between July and August 2021, in Lilongwe, Msukwa facilitated the sale of a land under his jurisdiction as Minister of Lands & Urban Development in Area 46 plot number 46/2057 to Zineth Abdul Rashid Sattar.

Sattar then bribed the Minister with K4 million and a Mercedes Benz C Class for the advantage of Msukwa’s associate Moses Kafunda.

Msukwa was also bribed K15 million through Sattar’s agent Ashok Kumar Sreedharan to buy land in Chipoka, Salima.

Ashok is also charged of facilitating a K4 million bribe on behalf of Sattar for Msukwa to facilitate payment of duty at Malawi Revenue Aithority for the Mercedes Benz C Class bought for Msukwa for the benefit of Moses Kafunda.

The ACB in collaboration with Britain’s National Crimes Agency — UK’s anti-corruption authorities — are investigating both Sattar and Ashok over corruption allegations in relation to some deals with the government of Malawi.