I don’t know who shot Mphwiyo, says Malawi Pres. Joyce Banda
President Joyce Banda has said she has no clue who shot Budget Director Paul Mphwiyo on the night of September 13, 2013 after being widely quoted in the press that she knows the people behind the shooting.
“I said I don’t know who shot Mr. Phwiyo,” said President Banda at Sanjika Palace in Blantyre during a press conference on her return from New York where she attended the United Nations General assembly.
This was a stark contrast to what the President was quoted in the press that she knew who was behind the shooting of Mphwiyo, just a day after the Budget Director was shot in front of his gate at his sprawling Area 43 residence in Lilongwe.
Pressed by journalists whether she revealed Mphwiyo’s attackers as per earlier statement, the President explained what she said at the time was that there were people who were not happy with the measures Mphwiyo had put in place to check fraud and corruption and those are the people who shot Mphwiyo.
Banda said she had left the matter of looting of government money in the hands of investigating authorities namely Police and Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB).
“I cannot act on mere speculation, whether any of my ministers is involved because I have just arrived this afternoon. I need to be briefed first and then I will act.
“ But I can promise that those involved will be exposed and if some were doing a smear campaign against innocent people, that will not work, let the Police and ACB investigate this issue thoroughly and I will not interfere in their investigations,” said Banda.
The President earlier disputed a news report that she had been to see Mphwiyo in a South African Hospital on her way back from USA saying she was seeing her Minister of Education Eunice Kazembe who is ill in South Africa.
The Nation newspaper carried a front page story alleging that the President spent close to four hours seeing Mphwiyo at Milpark Hospital in South Africa.
She said she was told that Mphwiyo had been discharged from hospital and is recuperating at unknown place in South Africa.
