After weeks of intensive investigations, The Malawi Observer can reveal how the plan to ‘sell’ Likoma Island was initiated and how a cabinet minister is still pushing to have the island sold to a Chinese-Australian multi-billionaire businesswoman.
In our investigations we have found out that Linda Karim-Creevey who has massive tourism investments in Namibia and Mozambique worth millions of US dollars was approached by Ambassador Mathias Spies, German envoy to Namibia and a German ‘fixer’ Professor Daniel Dank to invest in Malawi since Karim-Creevey was new and did not know anyone in Malawi. Karim-Creevey is the one with money.
The two Germans, Ambassador Spies and Dank convinced Karim-Creevey that they have connections with powerful government people who were going to make the whole process of ‘investing’ on Likoma Island easier.
First, they asked if they could ‘palm oil’ an intermediary who was going to connect them to a ‘powerful’ cabinet minister in order for them to acquire Likoma Island.
So, Karim-Creevey gave the two what they wanted, US$100,000 which they immediately gave to former cabinet minister Simon Vuwa Kaunda’s son, Simon Vuwa Kaunda Jnr for onward transmission to Minister of Tourism Vera Kamtukule.
Vuwa Kaunda Jnr is said to have given Minister Kamtukule only US$50,000 and kept the other half to himself.
When Dank and Ambassador Spies visited Malawi together with Karim-Creevey in February this year to ‘seal’ the deal with a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), things didn’t go as they expected.
Some officials from Ministry of Tourism started questioning some provisions of the MoU which was prepared by Dank and Ambassador Spies, where among other things, people on the Island were supposed to be relocated upstream of the Island and that all government rights, rules and powers like police, banking and even the Malawi Defence Force (MDF) security should be surrendered to the company that was going to ‘buy’ Likoma, Augustus GmbH.
Augustus GmbH from Haus Alsbach, 51766 Engelskirchen, Governmental District of Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany is registered under Commercial Register of the District Court in Cologne: Reg.-Nr. HRB92179 with a VAT-ID: DE314843366 and TAX-Nr.: 212/5707/1926.
The delay by the Ministry of Tourism incensed the three investors until Dank lost his cool in a meeting in Lilongwe and asked angrily while banging a table why they were being given a tough time ‘after we already paid the money?’
This was when it was revealed that Vuwa Kaunda Jnr was given US$100,000 to facilitate the process and they wondered why they were having problems now.
Eventually Vuwa Kaunda Jnr connected the Investors with Minister Kamtukule who by this time was out of the country in Doha but was flying back through Kamuzu International Airport (KIA) in Lilongwe.
On the day that Minister Kamtukule was flying back from Doha, Vuwa Kaunda Jnr drove the three to KIA where Minister Kamtukule assured them that the country’s Attorney General Thabo Chakaka Nyirenda was going to sign the MoU before he flew out of the country on the same day that she was landing from Doha.
Minister Kamtukule, soon after landing, took the three investors to meet Chakaka Nyirenda and sign the MoU. But Chakaka Nyirenda refused to sign the document and flew out.
Minister Kamtukule assured Karim-Creevey and her group that she was well connected to President Lazarus Chakwera and she was going to have the MoU signed. She demanded another US$200,000 to facilitate the signing of the MoU.
Minister Kamtukule continued to push for the signing of the MoU even though technocrats from her own ministry raised a few red flags on the MoU.
We have seen the recommendations of the technocrats to Minister Kamtukule which among other things indicate that the MoU is focusing on the Malawi Government surrendering total control of the Islands (Likoma and Chizumulu) through the establishment of a special tourism zone, contradicting the Fair-trading competition laws.
“There are no clear economic benefits for the country; Issues of tax waivers throughout the operation period (99 years), repatriation of profits, concession fees, forex generation and benefits to the locals. There is no mention of any partnership with a local company,” reads part of the report of the technocrats to Minister Kamtukule.
Since the issue was exposed by a local newspaper a few weeks ago, the government is struggling to come out openly and reveal details of the MoU and why it intends to sell Likoma Island to Augustus GmbH with conditions that clearly will not benefit Malawians.
Minister Kamtukule did not respond to our inquiry when we sought her comment while Vuwa Kaunda Jnr threatened a ‘vicious legal suit if you are going to print that nonsense’.
We left several messages on the phone numbers for Ambassador Spies and Dank but were not responded to.