Chakwera chides ACB’s Chizuma
President Lazarus Chakwera last night reprimanded Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) director Martha Chizuma on for leaked conversation she had with an unidentified person.
In a televised national address, the President said he summoned Chizuma for a meeting where she confirmed speaking about ongoing investigation in the leaked audio that has gone viral.
Chakwera described Chizuma’s action as unfortunate but said he would not dismiss her. Instead, he issued a stern warning to the ACB boss, saying he will keep an eye on her conduct.
The President said: “I would like to state why I appointed her to head the Anti-Corruption Bureau in the first place and why I have reaffirmed to that position with a warning.
“I appointed her because I considered her to be a person of great courage, the kind of courage needed to take on dangerous cartels of corruption that have milked our country dry for decades.”
But the address yesterday re-assured Malawians that their leader is still the same old corruption crusade they voted for.
Last week the Public Affairs Committee (PAC) met the President at Sanjika Palace in Blantyre where the quasi-religious body raised several governance concerns.
In a telephone interview last night, PAC publicity secretary Bishop Gilford Matonga said the President has done well to give Chizuma a chance.
He said: “Well the ACB director may have not done the right thing, but we all make mistakes and she deserves a chance.
“This is a person who has shown admirable determination to fight corruption. We also commend the President the way he has handled the whole issue. He was put in negative light in that clip because he has chosen to act without emotions.”
The leaked audio stirred debate in the country on Sunday as some quarters of society said it was a huge scandal and they called for the immediate resignation of the ACB boss.
In the audio, Chizuma put in the spotlight churches, judges, lawyers and the Presidency as not helping matters in the Sattar case, which so far, she said has proved politically divisive.
However, writing on his Facebook page, a Malawian professor of law DanwoodChirwa, based at University of Cape Town in South Africa, backed Chizuma, saying she did not share any confidential information about the Sattar investigation.
He observed: “Contrary to what agents of corruption are loudly claiming, the [ACB] director [general] has not broken her oath of office. All she has done is express her frustration and the lack of support to her office.
“She is entitled to do so, privately and publicly. All Malawians must sympathise with her situation…the ACB director [general] is a threat because she wants to break the gentleman’s agreement and prosecute major players in the corruption network.”
Malawi Law Society in a statement on Sunday said it was keenly following the Sattar investigation.
The society said it has previously spoken against interference in ACB’s investigation on Sattar.
