President for Freedom of Worship and Economic Liberation (FOWEL) Dr. David F Mbewe has called upon all the mothers of Malawi to rise up and hold the Tonse alliance government accountable because the administration has failed Malawians including all Mothers.

In a Mother’s Day statement, Dr. Mbewe said policies under the Tonse administration have brought suffering to mothers of Malawi.

He therefore challenged President Lazarus and his Vice Saulos Chilima to take lead in changing the lives of Malawians saying the country’s economic crisis is almost unprecedented in its severity.

“Sons and Daughters who were supposed to bring joy to their Mothers, have instead brought pain and suffering to the Mothers of Malawi, ” reads the statement.

“Malawi today, has subjected our Mothers to 19 hours of darkness due to the so called “prolonged load-shedding”, says Mbewe.

He laments that our Mothers are failing to fend for their families because food prices keep soaring and time is being spent on long fuel queues.

Mbewe says mothers that are doing business are languishing, because their businesses have collapsed. Those involved in cross boarder business can’t transact anymore because the country has no forex.

The statement calls on President Lazarus Chakwera as a God fearing person, to take lead in changing the lives of suffering Mothers.

He then calls on President Chakwera and his Vice Saulos Chilima must step aside as Presidents for their respective parties and concentrate on managing the affairs of the country without promoting partisan interests.

They say corruption does not see face! The High Court Judge’s wife, a lawyer of high repute and standing has been implicated in a corruption scandal at Malawi Gaming Board (MGB) where she is Director of Legal Services and is accused of stealing more than K50 million from poor Malawian taxpayers.

We can reveal that Ofwa Alide, wife to High Court Judge at the Commercial Court Division Justice Jabbar Alide is one of the two senior managers who have been suspended following an ongoing forensic audit where our taxes amounting to almost K600 million have been plundered by three top managers there.

According to information that we have seen, Alide and Director of Finance, Administration and Human Resources Henri Bakuwa were instrumental in stealing the cash using an ‘unknown company account’.

Documents in our possession show that former Chief Executive Officer for Malawi Gaming Board Foster Mulumbe is also involved in the financial scam. Mulumbe was at the centre of a corruption scandal involving maize deals when he was Chief Executive Officer at Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation (Admarc) before moving to Malawi Gaming Board in 2019.

Henri Bakuwa too was implicated in some financial and procurement scandals when he served as Director of Finance and later Acting Chief Executive Officer at Blantyre Water Board (BWB) before joining Malawi Gaming Board in 2019. Other places where is said to have embezzled funds include Kiwi Products, General Farming in Kasungu and Mwaiwathu Private Hospital.

Documents that we have seen show that the trio used to transfer money from some accounts of the company from National Bank of Malawi (NBM) to another company account held at FDH Bank which was only known to the three managers.

Money in excess of K593 million was taken and shared by the three individuals in a space of two years.

“A pattern was observed in the account whereby there would be a bank transfer from National Lotteries Board (NLB) followed by cheque withdraws by individuals believed to be employees of Malawi Gaming Board,” reads a document in our possession.

The FDH ‘unknown’ account was apparently opened in September 2019 by Bakuwa soon after joining the institution from BWB.

Bakuwa would transfer money from the NLB account held at NBM to the FDH account and later use cheques to withdraw the money.

An analysis of the withdrawals indicate that Bakuwa withdrew the largest amounts totaling K379, 163,251.38 while Mulumbe withdrew K163, 133,140.64 and Alide withdrew K50, 703, 607.98. This was done in a space of two years.

“In general, the amounts moved from NLB through an account of MGB at FDH then finally to the beneficiaries as summarized in table 3 above. Malawi Gaming Board further noted that the amounts to the individuals were done even when there travel restrictions due to the covid019 pandemic,” reads part of the report that we have seen.

Insiders also revealed that Bakuwa has mismanaged the staff welfare fund amounting to K10.2 million which he is failing to pay back.

MGB Board chairperson Bernard Ndau confirmed to a local newspaper that there is an ongoing forensic audit at MGB but declined to comment further.

Bakuwa and Alide also declined to comment on the matter although they confirmed their suspension from work.

Mlumbe also declined to comment when contacted.

By IOMMIE CHIWALO

The Centre for Democracy and Economic Development Initiatives (CDEDI), has penned President Lazarus Chakwera to act swiftly on pressing issues affecting Malawians.

In a letter forwarded to Presidential office and seen by this publication, the epistle signed by CDEDI Executive Director Sylvester Namiwa also cites the presidential trip as not only expensive but also poor timing since it was happening at the time when the economy was on its knees, due to numerous challenges.

Among other challenges, Namiwa has pointed out forex, fuel, electricity as well as drugs and medical supplies crisis, a situation that is warranting Malawians to embrace the spirit of holding their leaders accountable for their actions and inactions.

Above observations by Economic think tanks who are rating Malawi economy poorly, Namiwa has also reminded Chakwera about high unemployment levels.

“On Saturday October 1, 2022, Malawians were reminded of avoidable stampede that led to injuries of several job seeking young people a few days before the court sanctioned June 23, 2020 Fresh Presidential Elections (FPE) in the four major referral hospitals of Mzuzu, Lilongwe, Blantyre and Zomba when the Ministry of Health during the previous regime announced walk-in-interviews,” reads part of the letter.

He recalled that such bitter memories resurfaced yet again as thousands of young energetic but unemployed Malawians stormed the Bingu International Convention Centre (BICC) to learn value addition skills from a private citizen in an effort to escape the dehumanizing poverty that is worsening each and every passing day.

“Your Excellency, without mincing words, these are the would-be beneficiaries of the one million jobs which your administration promised to make available within the first year of your administration, which has now remained a broken campaign promise. Not even closer to servant leadership,” leads the letter.

Chakwera has since been asked to rise to the occasion and start from fixing the broken system as promised during campaign period.

“As a man of God, CDEDI refuses to accept that you have turned to governing the country through manipulation and outright cheap propaganda that paints a rosy picture of the country in the eyes of the international community, when in actual sense the situation is dire on the ground,” says Namiwa.

He has also challenged President Chakwera to run a transparent and accountable government with less talk and more action whose fruits should be there for everyone to see.

In the letter Namiwa has exposed excess baggage is denting Chakwera’s wish to cut a clean sheet in the eyes of the international community in as far as issues of good governance, rule of law, the fight against corruption and public reforms is concerned.

For instance he has cited the decision by President Chakwera to sit on the Public Reforms Report that was done to review the public sector performance as an example of failed leadership.

He said Malawians are waiting for nothing but action, saying the major crisis Malawians currently facing is that of leadership.

The CDEDI Boss has expressed worry over indecisiveness on the use of the very much needed forex for Chakwera’s trip to the USA, could have stirred the dying private sector to produce and contribute revenue in the form of taxes.

“As if that is not enough, you travelled to the US with the Minister of Natural resources, Hon. Eisenhower Mkaka, MP who according to the Anti- Corruption Bureau (ACB) is under probe and no one knows why you are still keeping him in your cabinet, when you fired the former ministers of lands Kenzie Msukwa, Labour, Ken Kandondo and Energy Newton Kambala the moment the bureau confirmed the trio were being investigated,” says Namiwa in the letter.

The letter has also accused the President for paying a blind eye to revelations that senior government officials and a cabinet member namely the Minister of Mines Albert Mbawala, the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Dr. Steve Kayuni, the Accountant General Jean Mnyenyembe, and the IFIMS Director Felix Zagwazatha Sato are reportedly implicated in unjustifiable allowance claims.

Meanwhile there is less happening in investigations and prosecutions of corruption related cases despite reported abuses.

Malawians are still in the dark to know how the MWK30 billion Covid funds were used.