A majority of Malawians are asking Vice President Saulos Chilima to resign over allegations that he is on the list of people said to have received kickbacks from businessperson Zuneth Sattar.
Court documents filed in the UK listed Chilima together with State House’s Chief of Staff Prince Kapondamgaga and Minister of Sports and Youth Chimwendo Banda.
On Tuesday, UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) revealed that it carried out covert surveillance of Sattar and planted audio recording devices at his premises. NCA corroborated with Malawi’s Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) and other investigators at the Malawi Police.
“The recordings contain evidence of inappropriate contact, bribery and corruption. The evidence collected demonstrates Sattar’s influence over and corruption of a number of senior public figures in Malawi, including the Malawian Vice President, Saulos Chilima, the Chief of Staff, Prince Harvey Kapondamgaga, the Malawian Solicitor General, Reyneck Matemba, the Inspector General of Malawi Police Service, George Kainja, a Malawi Police Service Lawyer: Mwambi Kaluba and the Chairperson of the PPDA, John Suzi Banda,” reads in part the document that has been making rounds on social media.
When asked to comment on the allegations, Chilima chose to remain silent.
#Sattargate Malawi Vice President Saulos Chilima (SKC) has been entangled in Zuneth Sattar's alleged cobweb of corruption. Should Chilima resign veep to pave way for investigation or not? Please votehttps://t.co/bfA5TtfKBM
— Malawi24 (@Malawi24) May 27, 2022
A poll that we run on Twitter show that pressure is mounting on the Vice President to resign.
Seven in every ten people who participated in the poll believes Mr Chilima should resign to pave way for an independent investigation. Only a handful of people (14.7 percent) believe Chilima should not resign. Another small group of people (10.3%) believe the report was doctored to implicate Chilima.
Similarly, several people who commented on our Facebook post made a call for Chilima’s head.
The poll is not statistically representative of either the country’s population or those who are on social media; and neither is this poll representative of all Malawians on Twitter.
An Uxbridge court ruled in favour of NCA to bar Sattar from travelling to Malawi.
NCA is UK’s lead agency against organised crime, cybercrime and economic crime that goes across regional and international borders. Malawi President Chakwera is yet to comment on the matter which has seen several government officials entangled in the Sattargate scandal.
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He must resign as a good example of ending corruption to our country