Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) director general Reyneck Matemba has challenged rights activists to get him fired saying he will gladly leave the bureau.
The bureau chief has said he is ready to leave the ACB if activists Timothy Mtambo and Gift Trapence of the Human Rights Defenders Coalition (HRDC) follow procedures in getting him removed.
Matemba was reacting to assertions that the bureau is reluctant to investigate a donation of five cars which businessperson Zameer Karim of Pioneer Investments made to President Peter Mutharika.
Karim gave Mutharika the vehicles worth K85 million a year after depositing K145 million into a governing Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) account whose sole signatory is the Malawi leader.
The alleged kickback to Mutharika was deposited days after Karim was paid K2.7 billion for supplying food rations to Malawi Police Service. However, the ACB said Mutharika did not personally benefit from the donation.
Following the recent revelations, HRDC said the bureau is an accomplice in corruption and called on Public Accounts Committee of Parliament to probe the five-car donation.
“It is an understatement to say ACB is toothless on the matter; the HRDC now believes ACB is an accomplice in corruption involving the President and the ruling party zealots in the country,” said Mtambo and Trapence in a statement yesterday.
Matemba, however, called on Mtambo and Trapence to follow procedures in removing him saying he would be happy to leave his position.
“I have said this on more than five occasions and I am beginning to question these two individuals’ [Mtambo and Trapence] sense of hearing and level of understanding. I will repeat what I have said before: Let Mtambo and Trapence follow the right procedures for my removal, I will gladly leave,” he said.
He added that the bureau is willing to investigate the donation of the five vehicles – which have Mutharika as title-holder – but stressed that it will not be pushed around.
He said. “The cases that the ACB takes to court for prosecution are guided by evidence and not speculation or the will of Mtambo and Trapence.”
