Report on MEC’s South African hired lawyers ready: Ombudsman’s to deliver it tomorrow

The Office of the Ombudsman is set to release a report from an investigation into how the pollster, the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC), ended up hiring a team of South African lawyers to represent it in the presidential election appeal case at the Supreme Court of Appeal.

The hiring of the South African lawyers followed the nullification of the 2019 Presidential Election by the five-member panel of High Court judges sitting as a Constitutional Court.

Spokesperson in the Office of the Ombudsman, Arthur Semba, confirmed the development with Nyasa Timesin a WhatsApp on Wednesday.

Semba said the investigation reviewed whether the costs for the hiring of the lawyers, Mboweni Maluleke Inc Attorneys, for a  contract sum of $788 500 (about K600 million), half of which had to be paid in advance on or by March 13, 2020, was justifiable and whether the country’s procurement laws were followed.

The lawyers did not participate in the hearing due to Covid-19 travel restrictions besides their contract facing opposition from the Malawi Law Society (MLS).

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