Joyce Banda started Cashgate to fund PP campaign – Mutharika

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Peter Mutharika

…tells Kasambara there are no sacred cows

Former President Joyce Banda who has been implicated in the looting of state funds by none other than the chief cashgate convict Oswald Lutepo has been fingered in the scandal again by current Malawi President Peter Mutharika.

Peter Mutharika
No sacred cows in Cashgate

Malawi President speaking in the US where he is attending the United Nations General Assembly said that Joyce Banda was afraid of being in Malawi owing to her involvement in the scandal that saw donors suspend aid to the Malawi government forcing the government to start cutting down funding in important sectors such as education.

Speaking at the Council for Foreign Relations in the US, Mutharika was responding to a question on his relationship with his predecessor Joyce Banda.

“I will be very frank on this,” said Mutharika. “Cashgate happened under her watch. The purpose of this theft was to fund the campaign for her political party.”

Mutharika further said that he could not send security detail to Banda who has imposed exile on herself claiming that she will be persecuted in Malawi. He urged people to tell Banda to come back to Malawi and help in building the country, apparently from behind bars where Mutharika has said will send all people involved in the corruption.

In the same discussion, Mutharika indicated that his government is serious about clamping down on corruption. He said that there are no sacred cows in the way his government is striking down corruption.

To indicate that his government is serious about tackling corruption, Mutharika referred to the case of former attorney general Ralph Kasambara who is in custody over his alleged role in the shooting of Paul Mphwiyo.