Chaponda acquittal surprises parliamentary cluster, summons Judiciary: State mishandled corruption case
Legal Affairs parliamentary cluster on Wednesday pressed on the graft busting body, the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) on allegations that brought a week corruption case against former Agriculture minister George Chaponda inorder to secure his acquittal.
The ACB on Wednesday appeared before the cluster committee on budget related matters but the acquittal of Chaponda took centre stage and overshadowed the cluster budget meeting.
However, the ACB explanations did not convince the cluster members of parliament.
Cluster chairman Maxwell Thyolera said the cluster has now resolved to summon the Judiciary on the matter.
“Dr Chaponda himself said the huge sums of money found in his house was for the DPP but the DPP said it did not give Dr Chaponda any money to keep in his house,” said Thyolera.
He said the cluster members of parliament feel both the prosecutors and the Judiciary mishandled the Chaponda corruption case.
However, defiant ACB director Reyneck Matemba trashed the cluster membes view on the case.
“As a bureau, a law enforcement agency, our job is to ensure that justice is secured. The problem here is that we have people who are not law experts commenting on the law,” said Matemba, adding, “this is nonsense!”
Matemba told people to leave the bureau do its job without interference.
“As long as I am the director of the bureau, I will not allow this to happen,” he said.
Malawians, including the civil society organisations, have been shocked though not surprised with the decision by the ACB not to appeal against the acquittal.
Chaponda is the powerful figure in the ruling Democratic Progressive Party and seen as successor to party president Peter Mutharika when he retires as party leader.
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This is the problem of having people who exaggerate themselves in influential positions. So in this day and era Matemba still believes he has the monopoly of knowledge? Really? Being a lay person in law does not mean one is an embicile and cannot even workout basic facts.
Usanyozetsa law profession. There are well-known lawyers with integrity in Malawi.
Shame on mediocrity!!!
Parliament should also summon the judiciary to find out why the MCP convention case which was before the High Court was taken to the Supreme Court before it was concluded in the lower court?
As long this ACB Head and the Chief Justice is appointed by HE himself, there is no independence in the this arm of government!
Therefore we need you legislators in Parlament, especially of opposition to look into it carefuly and if necessary you have to change it for the good of us ordinary citizens!
I congratulate you Director General. Where were these uneducated MPs when the case started? Why did they not join the case may be as friends of the court? If Thyolera is a legal expert, why can he not question the illegal convention that his party held recently? Indeed why Thyolera not advised his president not to demonstrate against the law he actively participated to formulate?
Matemba stand your ground. So too should be our judiciary. Parliament is full of half-baked and immature politicians. Shame! All of u come May 2019 you will not come back. Eat your last allowances
The Director is right. Let them make independent decisions. Parliament, do not be too excited in checking your fellow arms of government. You can’t dictate the judiciary
Director Matemba is spot on: non lawyer MPs making serious comments about a serious legal case, and trying to influence the legal decision. They don’t (maybe they can’t be expected to) have even have a clue regarding the legal technicalities in this case. Failures, fully charged with personal jealousy. This is a nonstarter in the new political dispensation. When are our MPs going to grow up, and near maturity in the political sense? Maybe we need a law that mandates for all MPs to be have an undergraduate degree, not the lowly MCE; only then can we expect them to… Read more »
In this day and era for a FAKE & mediocre professional to think (as some guys at ACB & one Judge seem to), that s/he has the monopoly of knowledge is actually a joke and for sure FOOLING her/himself. On a click of a button one can have an idea of what used to be solely professional KNOWLEDGE. Of course that does not mean one becomes an expert in the field but certainly s/he cannot be fooled or taken for granted. Unfortunately matchona ma ZIGOGO still live in the by-gone era. Still mindset that if one lived in the West… Read more »
Bwanji osangolemba Chichewa apa? Sitikumva zimene mwalembazi.
Malawians surprised? No am not one of them. John Tembo and Kamuzu Banda were acquitted of the Mwanza murder case. So who killed them? Maybe they committed suicide. Nkhani ya Chaponda nkachani?
A Matemba mpakana kutukwana mtundu onse wamalawi kuti we know nothing about law for expressing our surprise over your failure to convict Chaponda.
Ayi sikuchedwa kuchatu ukadya chamwini. Inuyo limodzi ndi aChaponda mwadya zaeni amalawi. A day of reckoning is coming with Chakwera and Mia. Tidzakuonani mmene mudzadzi defendere ndi law degree yanuyo. Behaving as if no one else has never had a law degree before, but you and Chaponda.
Mr Matemba mwayankhulatu ngati kulibe mawa. There is life after ACB unless you tell us that you will be the acb director forever. Apapa you have let your emotions influence your reasoning. Talk of emotions but why unless you are guilty conscious. I mean the CSO’s being citizens of our land defending the rights of this great nation, they too have a right to voice out their concerns when they feel justice was not served. stop being a prosecutor and a judge at the sme time. Why behave as if you are the only law scholar/expert in Malawi? Remember you… Read more »