Joyce Banda wanted to use Cashgate to win elections in 2014

The ongoing Paul Mphwiyo shooting case in Lilongwe continues to see numerous evidences being revealed as former Malawi President Joyce Banda and her People’s Party (PP) keep on being implicated in the Cashgate scandal which they used as a tool to win the elections in 2014.

Second suspect, Pika Manondo yesterday told the court that Banda had wanted to support a weaker candidate at the Malawi Congress Party (MCP) so that the fight against the then opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) should be as easy as ‘ABC’.

According to Manondo,  PP did not want MCP presidential aspirant at the party’s convention Lovemore Munlo to win fearing that since he is a Lhomwe, he would easily join hands with DPP if he won and then walk over PP in the polls.

Manondo told the court that this was built under the assertion that Malawi’s politics is based on tribes and that the DPP already had a massive backing in the Lhomwe belt.

The lower voiced Manondo said that he and Mphwiyo were the main men behind Banda’s wishes.

He was also open enough to say that they wanted to approach the incumbent MCP leader  Lazarous Chakwera but they did not have the audacity to do so.

Manondo then disclosed that the money the Malawi government received from China was all channeled to MCP convention without the party’s knowledge.

He also told the court that Mphwiyo was sent by Banda to Kenya to learn how the ruling parties there rig elections.

Mphwiyo had told them that in Kenya it was easy because they use Identification Cards unlike in Malawi where an electorate must be registered first.

In his testimonies, Manondo was asked by Judge Michael Mtambo to stop beating about the bush but to go straight to the point.

Mtambo wondered why Manondo took the court for a political science class.

However, Manondo did not state where he was on the day Mphwiyo was shot in September three years ago.

Banda was previously named by Treza Namathanga Sezani who is now in jail and Oswald Lutepo among others to have taken a role in the whole scandal, something which the ex Malawi leader says is being politically motivated by her rivals.

The attempt on Mphwiyo’s life led to the discovery of the cashgate scandal.

A forensic exercise by British Auditors established that K24 billion of public funds was stolen between April and September 2013. Another audit analysis by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) found that K553 billion of the K570 billion was uncounted for during the two years that Banda was president.

Ironically, a few hours following the shooting of Mphwiyo,  Banda said on 14 September that Mphwiyo was targeted because he was fighting corruption. She said that she knew people who plotted the shooting, a claim she currently denies making.

Manondo together with Ralph Kasambara, MacDonald Kumwembe, and Dauka Manodo are suspected of plotting the shooting whose case continues in court.