The Centre for Democracy and Economic Development Initiatives (CDEDI) has given Director General of Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) Martha Chizuma 14 days to resign from her position for hiding some issues regarding investigation of State House chief of staff Prince Kapondamgaga.
The statement has been made in a letter which CDEDI has written to ACB DG today, weeks after the ACB said it would not prosecute Kapondamgaga for receiving money and a vehicle from businessperson Zuneth Sattar.
In the letter , Executive Director for Cdedi Sylvester Namiwa said that the way Chizuma acted on the matter is shocking and most people that joined the protests to have her confirmed on the position of the Director General of the ACB never anticipated that the ACB would go down to such levels .
He added that the statement which the ACB Director General released on July 7, 2023 did not reveal the amount of money Kapondamgaga has handed over to the ACB apart from the Mercedes Benz which shows that she was forced to act in that way.
“CDEDI did a simple google search on the internet, and the following Press
Statements popped up: ACB Arrests Group Village Headwoman Mwawa in Mangochi dated April 20, 2023. In the above-mentioned statement, it is reported that the Bureau under your leadership arrested GVH Mwawa for receiving MK54, 000 from 26 beneficiaries of the 2022/2023 Affordable Inputs Program (AIP).
“On March 21, 2023 the ACB issued a Press Statement informing Malawians that it had managed to secure conviction of one Magret Mbandambanda, a police officer under the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) for Limbe police station, who was arrested for receiving MK100,000 in order to grant bail to a suspect.
“What is clear in these statements is that the ACB openly declared the amounts of money involved in the two cases, but the same bureau has suddenly become dumb to reveal what else Kapondamgaga has handed over to the ACB, apart from the Mercedes Benz,” reads part of the letter.
Namiwa went on to say that the two cases cited above involved money which is different with the current case and Malawians are failing to understand why the ACB failed to give the other two an option of giving back the money they were suspected to have received, just like the way Kapondamgaga was accorded the opportunity by the very same bureau to
give back the car and the other undisclosed stuff.
He also stressed that one would be forced to think that the two women were treated by the ACB as such because they are not connected to the political elite, and by extension, people can construe that the fight against corruption is merely a fight against the poor.
“Since the establishment of the bureau, we have never reached this low,” said Namiwa.
“Furthermore, the ACB’s deafening silence on the infamous MK250 billon East Bridge fertilizer deal is not only disturbing, but is also giving credence to speculations that you Madam, have resigned to fate, and you are just waiting for the expiry of your contract in June 2024, to leave officer,” he added.
