A former information minister and a deputy were given a six-year prison term by Malawi’s high court for stealing computers and power generators intended for a state-owned news organisation. The sanctions follow the resignations of a presidential adviser and a spokeswoman for the ruling party due to corruption in the current administration.
The sentences draw attention to the government’s campaign against corruption and worries that it is being used to eliminate competitors.
More than five months after being found guilty of corruption, former information minister Henry Mussa and his director of information Gideon Munthali—both Democratic Progressive Party–affiliated—were jailed this Thursday.
They join a number of former government officials who were already imprisoned for corruption-related offences as a result of a crackdown that President Lazarus Chakwera’s administration started soon after winning the 2020 election.
This includes the detention of the nation’s vice president, Saulos Chilima, in November of last year. Chilima is accused of accepting $280,000 in money and other things from British businessman Zuneth Sattar in exchange for contracts with the Malawian government.
Shadreck Namalomba, a spokeswoman for the DPP, praised the crackdown but noted that it was tainted by selective justice. According to him, rather than members of the present ruling Tonse Alliance, the majority of those detained were officials of the previous government.
Leading Tonse [Alliance] officials are leaving their positions and confessing to egregious corruption, according to Namalomba. What is amusing is that no one in the Tonse government has been detained, no one is facing charges of corruption in court, and no one is incarcerated within the Tonse government.
The six-year custody sentence issued to Mussa and Munthali despite the fact that they gave back the property they had stolen, according to Namalomba, is a fine illustration of selective justice in the fight against corruption.
According to what Namalomba had heard, the Cashgaters were currently being forgiven for having returned their stolen funds. “This is absurd. Others, such as the instance of Honorable Mussa, repaid the money, yet he was imprisoned while those who had similarly cheated the government were pardoned. It is unacceptable to support this kind of selective justice.
Those who cheated the Malawian government of an estimated $30 million between 2012 and 2014 were known as “cashgaters.” Former president Joyce Banda was in office at the time.
The Tonse Alliance is made up of nine parties, including Banda’s People’s Party.
Last week, local media claimed that three other Cashgate suspects were negotiating with the government to return the money they stole and be released, while five Cashgate suspects recently avoided imprisonment after paying back the money they stole.
This week, Attorney General Thabo Chakaka Nyirenda stated in an interview with a local newspaper that he still thinks amnesty is the best option for recovering public property from individuals who have been found guilty of cheating the government.
The issue, according to political expert George Phiri, is that the Malawian government is combining politics and the battle against corruption.
Since all of the individuals mentioned are members of the opposition Democratic Progressive Party, explained Phiri. But what about these Tonse Alliance cases that we have observed? And there are several such cases in the nation for which the suspects are not prosecuted.
VOA was unable to immediately receive a response from government authorities regarding the accusations of selective justice in Malawi’s fight against corruption.
But, with the creation of a special anti-corruption court, President Chakwera informed lawmakers on Tuesday this week that delays in hearing corruption cases would soon come to an end.
