EAM’s Ethics and Justice Commission asks President Chakwera to spare Chizuma

Ethics, Peace, And Justice Commission (EPJC) – a social arm of the Evangelical Association of Malawi (EAM) – has pleaded with President Dr. Lazarus Chakwera not to rescind his decision to pardon the Director General of the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) Martha Chizuma despite findings of the Commission of Inquiry faulting her conduct.

A Commission of Inquiry President Chakwera instituted to establish circumstances that led to her controversial arrest in December 2022 recommended that Chizuma must be investigated and disciplined for her criminal conduct, which the Commission said was contrary to the Corrupt Practices Act.

This is in relation to scathing accusations Chizuma made against a number of accusations against senior government officials and private individuals as frustrating her resolve to root out corruption in Malawi.

Among others, the ACB head named Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Dr. Steven William Kayuni, as one of the senior government official blocking her way to deal with corrupt persons.

This prompted Kayuni to lodge a complaint at the National Police Headquarters early December 2022, a development that led to her nocturnal arrest on December 6, 2022, much to the ignorance of the government machinery.

This prompted President Chakwera to institute a Commission of Inquiry, which was chaired by the Retired Justice of Appeal, Edward Twea, to investigate the circumstances that led to her arrest.

The Commission found that there ‘exist reasonable grounds to suspect that the Director General of ACB committed offences and that she demonstrated lack of sound judgment in the leaked audio’.

“The Commission recommends that appropriate action be taken to deal with the conduct of the Director General of the ACB in so far as the leaked audio is concerned,” reads part of the Commission’s report presented to the President on Tuesday.

The Commission seemed to agree with the opinion of many Malawians who have been demand her head following a leaked phone conversation with Anderson Mwakyelu – pen-named Orama Namalomba on the social media.

However, in a statement issued on Friday, EPJC Chairman Reverend Dr. Zacc Kawalala asked President Chakwera not to change his mind on Chizuma.

“The State President, we recommend, should maintain his position on the issues which he already pronounced himself on i.e., that he has already pardoned the ACB-DG, as nothing new has come out of the Commission of Inquiry which would make him change his earlier pronouncement.

“The EPJC would further like to call upon the State President to act on the other recommendations which are made, save the one in number 1 above, albeit with caution as there remain a lot of questions as to the intent of the report,” pleads Kawalala in the statement.

Kawalala further asked ‘Malawians of good will to seek the best for the nation and keep praying for our country for peace and prosperity for all citizens’.

“For the sake of our children and the generations to come, we urge Malawians, individually and corporately, to seek to work towards a better Malawi in our own spheres of influence.

“Our political leaders must learn to be genuinely concerned and responsive to the challenges the people are facing if we are to develop this nation and live securely,” concludes the statement.

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