AACC’s Economic Justice & Accountability Champion, Rev. Maulidi reports to Police on death threats he is receiving from unknown people

Rev. Maulidi at an international conference on fight against corruption organised by the African Union

* The criminal intimidation is because of him being in the forefront advocating the fight against corruption and bad governance, that includes lack of transparency and accountability

* The threats started last year from mobile phone calls, which register  ‘private number’ as hidden identity

By Duncan Mlanjira

The Church of Central Africa Presbyterian (CCAP) Blantyre Synod’s Deputy General Secretary, Rev. Baxton Maulidi — who is also the All Africa Conference of Churches Economic Justice & Accountability Champion in Malawi in fighting corruption — has reported to the Southern Region Police Headquarters that he is receiving death threats from unknown people.

The criminal intimidation is because of him being in the forefront advocating the fight against corruption and bad governance, that includes lack of transparency and accountability.

In an interview with Maravi Express, Rev. Maulidi revealed that the threats started last year from mobile phone calls, which register ‘private number’ as hidden identity that force him to stop advocating that the government should advance the fight against corruption, which will in turn lead to good governance, transparency and accountability.

But the man of God was not deterred with the threats by continuing observing economic trends, which has now reached high levels of inflation, escalating into skyrocketing prices of basic household commodities.

Rev. Maulidi further said as he continued his stance in his advocasy, the calls intensified that reached a terrifying level a couple of weeks ago when he was followed by a car without number plates, whose driver tried to block him at the Machinjiri turn-off roundabout.

And as the calls escalated, he has thus decided to report to the Police where he presented a detailed account of the ordeal he has gone through since last year.

“The police have assured that they will thoroughly investigate the matter,” he said. “I am living in fear but that does not stop me from highlighting serious flaws in our country’s economic governance, especially in the fight against corruption.”

Meanwhile, the undeterred Rev. Maulidi is condemning “the system of issuing passports to foreign nationals as this has the capacity to tarnish the good image Malawi has across the globe” and he demands that “an inquiry be instituted to bring to book those behind this unfortunate act”.

This follows reports that the US government has flagged Malawi as one of the countries whose citizens would undergo thorough scrutiny in the application of visas after some foreign nationals were issued with Malawian passports that enabled them entry into the US.

Just last month, Rev. Maulidi was appointed as one of 7 advisors of AACC’s Economic & Ecological Justice Committee following expertise in his on-going work as Economic Justice & Accountability Champion — alongside Anti-Corruption Ambassadorship in the AACC and Malawi.

The AACC is a continental ecumenical fellowship that represents more than 200 million African Christians in over 210 national churches and regional Christian councils in 43 African countries.

It is the largest association of Protestant, Anglican, Orthodox, and Indigenous churches in Africa, and a member of the worldwide ecumenical network, whose head office is in Nairobi and a regional office in Lome, Togo.

It also has another another office in Addis Ababa in Ethiopia which serves as its liaison office to the African Union and the AACC has accompanied member churches in their engagement in the decolonisation and nation-building processes and also played a significant role in the dismantling of apartheid in South Africa.

For operational and administrative reasons AACC divided the continent into five sub-regions: Northern Africa (5 countries), Eastern Africa & Indian Ocean (7 countries), Southern Africa (10 countries), Central Africa (8 countries) and Western Africa (10 countries).

This division ensures that every region is adequately represented in AACC’s decision-making bodies. It also enables the AACC to have a better understanding of specific social economic and political issues facing the regions and thus be able to serve them better.