Umodzi, Cedep want Chaponda to step down

One of the country’s opposition political parties, Umodzi, has called for the resignation of minister of agriculture, irrigation and water development George Chaponda over the maizegate saga.

This comes after the commission of inquiry on the maize saga released its findings on Saturday.

President Peter Mutharika instituted the commission of inquiry following allegations of malpractices in the way maize was purchased from Zambia and how the whole transaction affected maize prices on the local market.

In its report, the commission of inquiry said the minister’s conduct was suspicious hence he should be investigated on his own.

“The dealings between the Minister of Agriculture, Hon. Dr George Chaponda M.P., in this procurement process should be further investigated by the ACB as the manner in which Transglobe obtained an export permit from the Ministry of Agriculture of Zambia to supply maize to ADMARC raises suspicion,” reads part of the commission’s report.

Commenting on the findings, Umodzi Party president John Chisi said the minister should step down to pave way for investigations.

Chisi said he thought the minister had nothing to do with the saga but following the results of the inquiry, Chaponda need to be investigated and he should step down.

“I believed that Chaponda and other parties being mentioned on the saga had done nothing wrong but now it shows that he is really knowing something on the saga.

“Now, though the court ordered that he can still be the minister, but he need to show patriotism by resigning as a minister and he need not to wait for the president to fire him. The aim is to pave way for further investigations on him,” said Chisi.

Rights activist Gift Trapence of Centre for the Development of People (Cedep) concurred with Chisi saying if Chaponda does not resign Mutharika should fire him and let the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) probe the minister.

He further said all the implicated parties in the saga should be brought to court to answer charges of corruption and there should be no favouritism on the matter.