ACB mum on Joyce Banda arrest over corruption probe on Mudzi Trust: Analyst welcomes her coming

Graft busting body, the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) has refused to be drawn to comment on whether former president Joyce Banda would be arrested on arrival on corruption charges to do with Mudzi Transformation Trust.

When she was in power, Banda decided that government should  specifically target individual villages across the country with comprehensive high impact interventions that will accelerate the betterment of well being of rural and urban poor.

ACB spokesperson Egritta Ndala said although investigations on her alleged receipt of K7 billion from an oil drilling firm are still going, people should not mix up issues; her coming back to Malawi after a self imposed four year exile and the corruption charges she is to face.

“We will not be drawn to comment, these are two different issues,” said Ndala.

The five-year project, which started in 2013, sought to build houses for vulnerable people with a target of 20 000 villages nationwide. However, just over 500 houses were built at the end of Banda’s term in May 2014.

The ACB investigation is in relation to donations companies exploring for oil on Lake Malawi made to the trust, among them drugs, medical supplies and maize.

It is reported that the  investigation is on  donated drugs and medical supplies worth over $1 million (about K730 million) handed over to Banda at Kamuzu Palace in Lilongwe in March 2014.

In February 2014, the Khalifa Bin Zayed Foundation of United Arab Emirates also donated 13 500 metric tonnes of maize which Banda directed should be handled through Mudzi Transformation Trust. Parliamentary candidates for Banda’s People’s Party (PP) were tasked with the job of identifying beneficiaries.

The donations were allegedly part of the corporate social responsibility component of the licences awarded to the companies, but these were misused.

Mudzi Transformation Trust was established through the Trustee Incorporation Act in 2013 but it has remained inactive since Banda went out of government in June 2014.

Banda launched the initiative in May 2013 at Nthoso Village, Traditional Authority Khongoni in Lilongwe.

A political analyst at Chancellor College Nandin Patel has since welcomed the coming back of Banda, saying it might level the political playing field.

“The political landscape might not be the same. Her arrival will define the current political landscape because she has her own base and her own constituency,” she said.

Patel said Banda’s political participation in the run up to the 2019 polls will increase political competition, which she said is good for the country.

Currently, the political landscape is dominated by the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the main opposition, the Malawi Congress Party (MCP).

Patel, however warned her against going into political alliances before looking into details.

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Tchopanomics
5 years ago

Its the trust that is supposed to receive the money not jb

Zam'tonda
Zam'tonda
5 years ago

Time for sideshows all DPP crooks have found a very convenient point for ganging up against JB to hide their evil linens from the Malawian eyes but the 236 billion during Bingu’s era is still stinking by looking at Ndata mansion and the opulence in which all DPP cronies are wallowing this woman has given a cover under which the current crop of corrupt sycophants will be nesting our MBC will take it up by whipping up all trash for the illiterate Malawians. Our traditional political prostitutes in the name of chiefs will be tightening the noose on their once… Read more »

Ndendeuli
Ndendeuli
5 years ago

Apart from kuyenda ngati bakha kuja ine nilibe nayo problem mbava imeneyi.

Mwananyanian
Mwananyanian
5 years ago

“Poor” Joisi Banda: Malawians cried for bread, but she essentially gave them inedible grass, gravel and stones.
And she said “Mukhaula, ine ndapita; ndizikadya buledi wa kunja basi!”

oMachemba
oMachemba
5 years ago

Joisi Banda is so neck deep in you know what that even the best lawyers in Malawi may not be able to dig her out. Anasankha khalidwe limenelo yekha. I mean, there is so much to track, and so many lanes to follow regarding the oil exploration money, food aid money, and perhaps most defining of her character, the mother of all financial scandals – CASHGATE. Everybody knows she blew lots of money over the few years she lived (without employment) in Azungu lands. Basic question, and this is a fair question, everyone is asking is “where would a Malawian,… Read more »

#DzukaniAmalawi
#DzukaniAmalawi
5 years ago

DPP will certainly find some legitimate way of silencing her or force her into marriage with DPP. This was DPP will kill PP and at the same time UDF. It will require a formidable opposition to fight against that coalition party (DPP + PP + UDF) unless MCP goes into alliance with other smaller parties. Unfortunately Malawi politics is so immature to strategize at that level. It’s everyone for himself. These old parties will have to die natural death to usher in new thinking and I left modern-thinking political parties capable of taking the country forward

kaka ni dada
kaka ni dada
5 years ago

Donation yasanduka corruption. …? Kkkkkkkkkkk! Lembani zoti timvetse.

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