By Lawyer George Jivason Kadzipatike

I have seen extracts of a document purported to have been filed by British National Crimes Agency (NCA) in a court in London.

Most of us in Malawi seem to be excited about the revelations made in the document.

I’m, however, doubtful if the document in question, without more, would be beneficial to us in Malawi.

Kondwani Munthali, Onjezani Kenani, Idriss operating as public prosecuting agencies for Malawi; the ones behind circulation of the questionable NCA court document

It is doubtful because from the extracts I have seen, it would appear that the document places reliance on “recordings” done undercover, without the knowledge of the person who was being recorded.

The one who was recording the purported Sattar is not mentioned, but the document mentions names of people in Malawi that the purported Sattar allegedly talked to or about.

This document is a mere piece of evidence that is in the custody of the State in the United Kingdom. To my knowledge, it has not been used in a substantive trial.

Sattar’s lawyers have not yet had a chance to cross-examine the one who was secretly recording him on the content of this document.

The court in the United Kingdom has not established the veracity or truthfulness of the content of the document.

Until substantive trial is concluded and judgment is delivered, the document is not conclusive evidence of what it contains.

As it stands, the document merely forms part of the ALLEGATIONS of grand corruption allegedly committed in Malawi by Mr. Sattar and others. Those allegations have not yet been proven before the Court in England.

 The question that is exercising my mind is whether such recordings, if tendered as evidence in Malawian courts, would be admissible.

In the first place, obtaining evidence by eavesdropping on a person is against the right to privacy enshrined under section 21 of the Malawi Constitution.

I do not think evidence obtained elsewhere in a manner that is unconstitutional in Malawi would be accepted by our courts.

I know that the right to privacy in Malawi is limitable but if my memory serves me right, Dr Cassim Chilumpha’s treason case where he was accused of plotting to assassinate Bingu hit a dead end, among other reasons, because of issues of reliability of recordings done in breach of his constitutional right to privacy.

Secondly, if the recordings were to be tendered in the courts in Malawi, the person or persons who did the recordings in the United Kingdom would have to come personally to Malawi to tender such evidence, otherwise such evidence would be thrown out by the courts for being documentary hearsay.

Now when we are circulating these documents from the United Kingdom, we should be more aware that once the Malawians mentioned therein get to sue us for defamation, we would have a shaky defence to that claim on two main grounds:

1) because there is no proof approved by the court of the guilt of those accused.

2) because the document circulating is hearsay in Malawi and not admissible before our courts unless we invite the people from the United Kingdom who did the recordings to tender their recordings in our courts, and that would be a little too expensive to do.

The truth be told! The establishment of Platform for Investigative Journalism (PIJ) as an independent hub for public interest still remain questionable.

With about a year into full operation, the platform gets direct funding from British National Crime Agency (NCA) via British High Commission Office in Malawi.

But the leadership grouping of Gregory Gondwe (former Times group reporter), Golden Matonga (former Nation Newspaper reporter), Rabecca Chinjeka (Times Group reporter), Suzgo Chitete (Nation Publication Limited), Kondwani Bell Munthali (Former Nation Newspaper reporter, now in United Kingdom-UK) and other invisible pens will not tell you where they get funding of its operations.

PIJ membership has nothing to do apart from working for the Britons.
Some of articles said to be investigative have been challenged in court.

The British NCA are spending huge sum of money to PIJ through British High Commission office in the name project funding.

The current British High Commission to Malawi David Beer is the one masterminded the whole project.

The British High Commission is fully paying for PIJ team leader Gregory Gondwe’s house rent, offices, monthly upkeep including legal expert for lawsuits.

No wonder, British High Commission office was furious when Gondwe was summoned at Police in Blantyre, interfering Malawi’s internal matter.

The same British High Commission Office pressurized courts and police to leave Chizuma from questioning on the leaked audio case which is in court.

The platform is getting momentum currently on staged propaganda against successful businessman Zuneth Sattar.

PIJ through British funding made agreement with embattled Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) Director General Martha Chizuma to share notes or any document suspected to have worked with Sattar for their prey.

Consequently, any information related to corruption happening in Malawi, PIJ obtains from Chizuma with the blessings of British NCA.

Chizuma has been working tirelessly with PIJ and social media friends including Onjezani Kenani, Idriss Nasah, Chisa Mbele , Gogo gowoka and Benson Jackson Ojesi (Malawi Congress Party zealots) to solely attack Sattar to the end.

Unfortunately, British NCA is using these individuals unknowingly apart from Chizuma and PIJ who are fully funded for one course, thats Sattar.

If you have notice on PIJ operatives are fully on Sattar nothing more serious is being reported by any other person on its platform.

What is shared on Sattar regarding to Wednesday, court case, it’s sorely verbatim from Kondwani Munthali not necessarily on what the court observed.

The said court document circulating by Munthali was submitted by Martha Chizuma when in April 2022 sneaked outside the country to meet his sponsors in UK.

NCA should not lie to the nation that it did investigation.

Chizuma is the one complied all of it submitted to NCA and PIJ is also lying that it investigated the matter or obtained the document with court privileges.

NCA is aiming at robbing businessman Zeneth Sattar’s worthy obtained years of hard work.

We have information that NCA told Sattar to surrender his assets to them if he wants freedom which is day light robbery from Britons.

Surprisingly, NCA is sweeting on Sattar without any complaint from Malawi government with the use of PIJ and Chizuma for British interests.

Developed nations including UK, USA, France, Germany have never had good will to poor countries like Malawi.

They will use their dollars and pound to entice poor heads coupled with poverty in the name of helping the developing nations while having hidden agenda the case with PIJ, fully funded by Britons.

Currently, PIJ membership is very excited with funding gets from British Aid to victimize their own brothers and sisters in the name investigative journalism.

Be watchful Malawians!!!

Soon, Martha Chizuma’s contract as the boss at the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) will be expiring and debate will ensue if government must let her go or renew.

For someone who always rides on public pity to survive, it is certain that there will be calls all over, especially on social media, for Chizuma to continue heading ACB.

But, in all fairness, is Chizuma really fit to continue leading ACB? In the years she has been there, is there anything ACB can show to the public to give confidence that, indeed, the funding that is going to ACB is living to people’s expectations.

To begin with, we need to applaud the Chakwera administration for increasing funding to ACB and also making the institution independent from executive controls.

Amidst all the woes that have been there surrounding Chizuma, President Chakwera has consistently stood for Chizuma, defending her everytime with a goal to ensure that ACB operates independently and efficiently.

This background tells you that Chizuma’s ACB is not just financially sound to executive it’s work but it is also independent from the executive in its operation.

To mean, Chizuma’s ACB has everything it needs to be efficient in its operations of ending corruption in the country.

But against this, has Chizuma really lived to people’s expectation in how she has performed so far?

I don’t think so.

Since she came to ACB, the institution hasn’t concluded even a single case before the courts. There could be so many reasons for that, but, trust me, its a giant minus to her resume.

Further, Chizuma has reduced the demeanour of her office through her continued behaviour of seeking public pity as she shares discreet information with the public.

We saw in that leaked recording. We saw how some people on social media always shared privileged information from ACB. These, insiders tell you, are Chizuma’s strategies to be seen to be working by increasing her visibility and endorsement on social media. But is there anything on the ground? Zero.

Further, Chizuma will go down in history as an ACB boss who came to just settle scores with certain business people in the country. For instance, Chizuma has put all her energy in pursuing businessperson Zuneth Sattar to the point of breaking oath of her office. That doesn’t sound professional.

In all honesty, there is very little that Chizuma can show on the ground as her achievements. She may have the zeal to fight corruption, but I think she lacks the sophistry that one needs at a complicated institution such as ACB to crux the times and get things done.

If you read what people such as Onjezani Kenani, Kondwani Munthali, Idris Ali Nassah and Joshua Mbele posts on social media about businessperson Zuneth Sattar, you would be easily forced to conclude that Sattar is a bad man, with bad intentions for Malawi.

They try so hard to dust off anything negative about Sattar and amplify it with carefully selected adjectives to make sure anyone reading them, condemns Sattar as evil.

The entire thing looks like a well coordinated agenda to recruit more Malawians in their scheme of demonising and destroying Sattar.

But what wrong, if one may ask, has Sattar done to Malawians deserving the relentless backlash from these social media carpers?

Sattar is a Malawian, born and raised here and grew under the tutelage of his father who has been in business since 1950s. As a second generation family, Sattar took over management of his family’s business and with his shrewdness, he grew them bigger.

In a nutshell, Sattar is an honest businessperson and, typical of his average, he jumps on every opportunity that promises great returns.

He does business with private sector and he does business with the public sector.

So why this hatred?

It’s in the nature of Malawians, especially those in diaspora, to always have a blue eye against certain Malawians, especially of Asian descent, as enemies mostly when they are successful businesspersons.

Sattar, to me, is a victim of that spirit, coupled with other competitors funding stooges to dirten his name.

Because if there is anything sinister Sattar has done, then why don’t we leave it to crime busting agencies and courts that we have to handle it.

As a democracy, we can’t allow certain people assuming the role of ACB, FIU, Police and Courts on social media just because they hate certain people. This is anarchy not order.

That is why some of us feel that if there anything Sattar has done, let’s leave it to crime busting bodies to handle that. Otherwise, trying people on social media doesn’t tell us anything about those being tried but the hatred behind those posting everyday.