The whistleblower Joshua Chisa Mbele is being demanded to pay Chakwera compensation over a post that allegedly detailed how K6.2 billion of Covid-19 funds were misappropriated.
Mbele has been sued by Nick Chakwera, the son of President Lazarus Chakwera after the whistleblower claimed that Nick is the business partner of corruption suspect Martin Mainja.
Mainja owns Pest Chem 1B which was handpicked and awarded a K97 million contract by the Office of the President and Cabinet, according to a National Audit Office report. Currently, Mainja is in police custody over the issue.
After the release of the report last week, Mbele linked Mainja to Nick Chakwera.
“Companies 1~ Pest Chem 1B 2~ World Link 3~ MM Security 4 ~ GALILEYA Pharmaceutical Supplies Possibly many more. One Martin Mainja is the man behind them. He has so far been irregularly awarded Business Opportunities by Office of the President & Cabinet. Parliament. Ministry of Health. Chancellor College. Malawi Prisons
“New Revelations: Martin Mainja is the Business Partner of the son of the President, Nick Chakwera Problem: They were not being fairly paid for the work done but clearly STEALING. Fellow Countrymen, we are at this juncture in our democracy. Newly Elected government. 9 months into office.
“Tell me why Malawians cannot declare this government an enemy of the people and remove it from office,” he posted on April 16 on his Facebook account which has over 6,000 followers.
The post, which was still up on April 21, has landed Mbele in hot soup as Nick Chakwera has dragged him to Court.
According to court summons made available to Malawi24, Chakwera is seeking award of aggravated compensatory damages, a retraction of the publication, a public apology and costs of the case.
In statements for the case, Chakwera, through his lawyers, argues that Mbele’s post claimed that he (Chakwera) was being irregularly awarded contracts and that together with Mainja they are not being paid fairly but are in fact stealing.
Chakwera who is Assemblies of God Pastor also noted that the Facebook post was shared to thousands of followers and attracted reactions.
“The above stated remarks will surely tend to lower the claimant in the estimation of right-thinking members of society generally, and it will cause him to be regarded with feelings of hatred, contempt, fear ridicule and disesteem, yet he holds the respectable position of being a well-known pastor at one of the major churches in the country, namely, Assemblies of God,” reads part of the statement.
The claimant further expressed concern that commenters on the post were likening hm to Duduzane Zuma, the son of South Africa’s ex-president Jacob Zuma.
Meanwhile, Mbele in reaction to the summons has argued that he distanced Chakwera from Mainja in a subsequent post.
“JC is a responsible person. How could I say Nick Chakwera is a business partner of one Martin Mainja. I actually said the opposite. I emphatically refuted that claim,” said Mbele while sharing a screenshot of the subsequent post.
Part of the post reads: “Nick Chakwera is not the shareholder of Pest Chem 1B. The Registrar of Companies records don’t reflect anything to that effect.
“In fact, the company name doesn’t belong to Martin Mainja. He stole it from another company and added 1B. He was dragged to court for that.”
